Take a peek into the black box
Your Journey of Reflection and Empowerment in the Digital Age
What is digital positionality?
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Digital positionality is a sensitizing concept for understanding inequality in the digital age. It aims to empower internet users as change-makers and challenges ideas of digital inevitability, like the assumption that the current technological status quo is inescapable, by encouraging the imagination and collective enactment of alternative, more just futures.
Understanding your own digital positionality is like having a unique GPS for your position in and perception of the networked world we live in today. It helps to determine your relative success or challenges in how you navigate this new reality of the digital age and your ability to improve your life chances amid planetary, societal, and technological structures.
Embrace Awareness and Take Control: Picture the world as a puzzle with three interconnected dimensions: The Earth, The Social World, and The Digital World. Each dimension adds unique puzzle pieces to your digital positionality, influencing how you perceive and interact with the world.
As you begin to map out your own digital positionality, you’ll discover various relative opportunities and challenges in each dimension. Some puzzle pieces may grant you privileges, while others may pose obstacles to overcome. But the exciting part is that your digital positionality is not fixed; it’s a dynamic interplay of you as a person and these three dimensions. Through continuous learning, transformation, and engagement, you have power to shape your own life chances with self-determination over time.
Understand How Technology Empowers or Limits Us: Digital positionality isn’t just a tool; it’s a lens revealing the ties between the structures of the three vital dimensions of our existence: The Earth, The Social World, and The Digital World. Understanding these links and their history can support us in breaking with the looping cycles of exploitation we find ourselves in – again and again – through collective practice, leading us to a future where progress and equity align.
Explore our collection of knowledge and tools that will empower you to navigate the digital landscape with confidence. Check out the Resources section, where you’ll find our reflexivity tools and Comic to support you on your quest for digital self-determination.
Learn about Digital Positionality’s story in About. From academic inquiry to practical application, it serves as a framework for understanding and navigating eco-socio-digital realities. This hub explores and utilizes the concept to offer tools for shaping equitable digital futures.
News
Conferences/Events
Past
- Workshop, 28.09.2023 STUFO Hamburg: „Digitale Positionalität und Ermächtigung: Reise in eine gerechte digitale Zukunft“ Conducted by Anna L. Menne; Alissa T. Steer & Makēda Gershenson
- Presentation, 25.09.2023 Berlin Conference for Student Research 2023: „Unveiling Digital Positionality: Empowering Netizens in the Digital Age“ Presented by Anna L. Menne; Alissa T. Steer & Makēda Gershenson
- Presentation, 20.09.2023 Digitalization for Sustainability Transformations: Critical Perspectives, Lessons Learned, and Future Prospects Conference: „Digital Positionality: Empowering Netizens to Navigate ICT for a Sustainable and Just Future“ Presented by Anna L. Menne; Alissa T. Steer & Makēda Gershenson
- Workshop, 06.09.2023 Diverse Infrastructures? Gender, Queer & The Foundations of Society, 3rd Vienna Workshop on STEM: Workshop „Digital Positionality: Navigating Digital Landscapes Through Reflexivity“ Conducted by Anna L. Menne; Alissa T. Steer & Makēda Gershenson
- Presentation 04.04.2023 WorldCUR – BCUR 2023 at Warwick: „Digital Positionality: Designing a Qualitative Map Toward Epistemic Justice from the Bottom-Up“ Presented by Anna L. Menne; Alissa T. Steer & Makēda Gershenson
Publications
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