This knowledge hub offers educational tools and resources to bridge knowledge gaps around the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their connections to  ecological and social inequality. At the heart of our approach is digital positionality, a powerful lens for critical reflection one one’s situatedness within the digital landscape.

By engaging with digital positionality, users are invited to explore how their digital experiences are shaped by broader social and ecological systems. This reflection can reveal hidden biases, surface power dynamics, and highlight both obstacles and possibilities within digital environments.

The ultimate goal is to inspire and enable people to contribute to responsible, sustainable technological development and to actively shape more equitable digital futures. Through the lens of digital positionality, we believe individual users can become more conscious netizens, capable of (re)visioning and working towards alternative, more just digital realities.

Digital Positionality began as a concept developed by Anna Lena Menne and took shape through a collaborative, student-led research project at Humboldt University. From November 2022 to November 2023, Anna led the X-Tutorial “Digital Positionality: Designing a Qualitative Map Toward Epistemic Justice from the Bottom-Up,” hosted by the Gender and Media Studies Department at the Institute for Asian and African Studies.

X-Tutorials are two-semester, student-driven research initiatives that allow interdisciplinary teams to explore topics of their choosing. This particular project brought together students from political and social sciences, education, philosophy, psychology, and future studies to critically examine and expand the idea of digital positionality.

Throughout the project, Anna collaborated closely with participating students—most notably Makēda Gershenson and Alissa Steer—to develop a set of practical tools rooted in the concept. These tools emerged through a truly collaborative process, blending Anna’s foundational ideas with the diverse experiences and insights of the student team.

Funded under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder by the Berlin University Alliance, the X-Tutorial offered a unique space for hands-on, transdisciplinary exploration. It became a creative and critical environment for refining the concept of digital positionality and translating it into accessible educational resources.

This platform is the result of that process: a knowledge hub designed to explore the intricacies of digital life and empower individuals to imagine and co-create more just and sustainable digital futures.

The X-Tutorial was inspired by Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR), emphasizing collaboration and the integration of lived experiences in the knowledge creation process.

Our research began in autumn 2022, focusing on exploring the theoretical foundations of digital positionality and reflecting on our personal experiences with ICT. In January 2023, we shifted our focus to understanding the digital positionalities of individuals from diverse and often underrepresented backgrounds in Berlin.

We employed a variety of research methods to gather insights. Using an innovative electronic can phone developed by the Design Research Lab in Berlin, we engaged with approximately sixty people from different social milieus, collecting their thoughts and questions about the digital sphere. We also conducted a comprehensive focus group discussion with a diverse set of participants in Berlin, enabling in-depth exploration of digital experiences. Additionally, we organized creative workshops for digital natives at a Berlin community school, employing interactive methods to understand youth perspectives.

Throughout our exploration into how people perceive and interact with ICT. We uncovered the influence of dominant discourses on technology, the tensions between convenience and critique, the avoidance of critical reflection, and the often unexamined digital dependence that shapes our lives.

These insights not only informed the development of a concept we termed ‚the cycle of avoidance‘ but also generated 10 qualitative design principles, which guided the collaborative creation of the currently available resources. This multi-faceted approach allowed us to capture a wide spectrum of experiences and viewpoints, enriching our understanding of digital positionality across different social groups and ages.

Guided by ten design principles derived from our first semester’s fieldwork, we developed three reflexivity tools:

1. A Workshop Guide that facilitates comprehensive reflection on your digital positionality.
2. A Comic, enriched with reflective questions, which serves as a playful mirror to the complexities of digital life, empowering individuals to live with intention and awareness and to shape sustainable futures collectively.
3. Rules of Thumb, a set of ten guiding principles designed to inspire and support you as you navigate the challenges of the digital age.