A feminist action framework on development and digital technologies

This document is a guiding framework on gender, development and digital/internet rights. Borrowing from feminist theories that bring together conceptions of gender justice and economic justice, it seeks to tease out the issues and positions for feminist advocacy on digital technologies and the internet.1 As the warp and weft of all social systems change with the indelible mark of the internet and digital technologies, there is a destabilisation of norms and rules. This is true for national and global institutions – from trade, commerce, financial markets, work arrangements, etc. to social and cultural arenas of communication, media and knowledge. The flux we are witness to can be harnessed by agile feminist action into a productive space that can mark a departure from traditional norms that define social power. But for this to happen, feminists need to claim historical knowledge and build an informed framework of analysis and action. So far, a strong civil and political rights framework has led feminist actions in the digital realm. Using the normative compass that feminist conceptual tools on development offer, digital rights activism must promote an idea of gender justice that accounts for the lived experience of women at the margins of the mainstream economy. This calls for a composite approach that underscores the indivisibility and interdependency of social-economic and civil-political rights. 1 This writing draws from the work of Third World feminist networks like Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and insights from personal engagement in the internet policy arena through the work of IT for Change, the organisation that the authors are associated with. This document intends to bring to feminist advocacy and action the conceptual and analytical building blocks of such an approach. It examines the substantive aspects of women’s economic, social and cultural rights, offering a new point of departure to the old idea of the “right to communicate”, bringing to the fore the idea of “cognitive justice”. Outlining why and how women’s rights in the network age requires a new conception of the right to access digital technologies, the right to knowledge and the right to development, it spells out the key “asks” in terms of national and global policies. The final section, on the directions for feminist advocacy, provides an indicative cartography of issues and spaces for action.Ford Foundatio

Voice or chatter? Making ICTs work for transformative engagement

What are the conditions in democratic governance that make information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated citizen engagement transformative? While substantial scholarship exists on the role of the Internet and digital technologies in triggering moments of political disruption and cascading upheavals, academic interest in the sort of deep change that transforms institutional cultures of democratic governance, occurring in ‘slow time’, has been relatively muted. This study attempts to fill this gap. It is inspired by the idea of participation in everyday democracy and seeks to explore how ICT-mediated citizen engagement can promote democratic governance and amplify citizen voice. The study involved empirical explorations of citizen engagement initiatives in eight sites – two in Asia (India and Philippines), one in Africa (South Africa), three in South America (Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay) and two in Europe (Netherlands and Spain).DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

A citizenship in crisis: voice, welfare and other contestations in the digital state

The vision, design and implementation of e-governance in India with its attendant “datafication” leads to many pertinent questions about the changing nature of governance and state-citizen engagement. This Brief argues that data-based decision-making in India is part of a larger trend that seems to displace the complex ingredients of participatory governance - dialogue, deliberation, audit and answerability - in favour of a fait accompli that disempowers citizens. Whether it is biometric based authentication systems, online grievance mechanisms or Big Data based beneficiary rationalisation, the absence of modes for a meaningful right to be heard, right to contest and seek accountability, decouple citizenship from rights and justice. The authors take the view that digital technologies in governance and data-based solutions need to be harnessed towards strengthening grassroots democracy rather than alienating it. They put forward the Charter on Democratic Accountability in the Digital Age as a step towards consolidating this emerging dialogue on data governance / data in governance. The Brief ends with a stark warning: The civic-public value of the digital governance paradigm must be co-constructed by citizens. if the much acclaimed openness of the digital movement cannot be put to the service of participatory grassroots democracy, democracy itself runs the risk of being cannibalised. This brief is part of a series from IT for Change produced from its Voice or Chatter research project, which examines the relationship between ICT-mediated citizen engagement and democratic governance.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Democratic accountability in the digital age

There is, this Brief argues, a new governance paradigm emerging, characterised by the rise of "governance by networks" and "rule by data". This flux, say the authors, is marked by a hollowing out of the state, replacement of human functions in public administration by digital technologies, and networks where private actors are becoming part of government. The resultant crisis of governability calls for new institutional mechanisms to protect and promote democratic values, as old ones are rendered inadequate. This document examines and discusses shifts in the contemporary democratic fabric by focusing on emerging technological practices in government. It explores key concerns, and articulates the gaps in current legal-policy measures necessary to promote participatory democracy in the digital age. This brief is part of a series from IT for Change produced from its Voice or Chatter research project, which examines the relationship between ICT-mediated citizen engagement and democratic governance.DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

A feminist action framework on development and digital technologies

This document is a guiding framework on gender, development and digital/internet rights. Borrowing from feminist theories that bring together conceptions of gender justice and economic justice, it seeks to tease out the issues and positions for feminist advocacy on digital technologies and the internet.1 As the warp and weft of all social systems change with the indelible mark of the internet and digital technologies, there is a destabilisation of norms and rules. This is true for national and global institutions – from trade, commerce, financial markets, work arrangements, etc. to social and cultural arenas of communication, media and knowledge. The flux we are witness to can be harnessed by agile feminist action into a productive space that can mark a departure from traditional norms that define social power. But for this to happen, feminists need to claim historical knowledge and build an informed framework of analysis and action. So far, a strong civil and political rights framework has led feminist actions in the digital realm. Using the normative compass that feminist conceptual tools on development offer, digital rights activism must promote an idea of gender justice that accounts for the lived experience of women at the margins of the mainstream economy. This calls for a composite approach that underscores the indivisibility and interdependency of social-economic and civil-political rights. 1 This writing draws from the work of Third World feminist networks like Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) and insights from personal engagement in the internet policy arena through the work of IT for Change, the organisation that the authors are associated with. This document intends to bring to feminist advocacy and action the conceptual and analytical building blocks of such an approach. It examines the substantive aspects of women’s economic, social and cultural rights, offering a new point of departure to the old idea of the “right to communicate”, bringing to the fore the idea of “cognitive justice”. Outlining why and how women’s rights in the network age requires a new conception of the right to access digital technologies, the right to knowledge and the right to development, it spells out the key “asks” in terms of national and global policies. The final section, on the directions for feminist advocacy, provides an indicative cartography of issues and spaces for action.Ford Foundatio

Internet governance as 'ideology in practice' – India's 'Free Basics' controversy

The paper examines the recent Free Basics controversy in India, which triggered a national level policy debate on the appropriate regulatory response to differential pricing of data services, employing the theoretical framework of 'ideology in practice'. Unpacking 'openness' in design, 'inclusion' in provisioning and 'empowerment' in use as contested concepts in the policy process, the paper demonstrates a paradoxical conflation of oppositional interpretations of access. Tracing the material-discursive practices of actors in the debate and scrutinising everyday practices of the internet for their moral claims, the paper examines if and how hegemonic discourses of economic globalisation are challenged, and alternative meanings of the internet etched in contemporary political agenda on internet governance in India

Voice or chatter? Making ICTs work for transformative engagement: research report summary

What are the conditions in democratic governance that make information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated citizen engagement transformative? While substantial scholarship exists on the role of the Internet and digital technologies in triggering moments of political disruption and cascading upheavals, academic interest in the sort of deep change that transforms institutional cultures of democratic governance, occurring in ‘slow time’, has been relatively muted. This study attempts to fill this gap. It is inspired by the idea of participation in everyday democracy and seeks to explore how ICT-mediated citizen engagement can promote democratic governance and amplify citizen voice. The study involved empirical explorations of citizen engagement initiatives in eight sites – two in Asia (India and Philippines), one in Africa (South Africa), three in South America (Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay) and two in Europe (Netherlands and Spain).DFIDUSAIDSidaOmidyar Networ

Tackling online inequality : making digital platforms work for inclusive development - final technical report

Research included case studies of different economic sectors and legal reviews in the domains of e-commerce, agriculture, video-on-demand, food delivery, fintech, ride hailing and travel undertaken in various sites in the global north and south. Recommendations include overhauling the traditional legal approaches to managing the rights, relations and conduct of persons and businesses engaged in commerce in the digital context. The platform mode of economic organization urgently needs to be reoriented towards a more equitable distribution, as if the last woman mattered