DIgitalisation for biocultural diVERsity and Environmental justice

Descripción del proyecto

Reducir la brecha digital para potenciar los movimientos ecologistas de base

En la lucha por la justicia medioambiental y la preservación de la diversidad biocultural, la brecha digital supone una importante amenaza. Esta división corre el riesgo de excluir a los movimientos de base del poder transformador de la digitalización, obstaculizando su capacidad para defender sus causas con eficacia. Mientras las innovaciones digitales impulsadas por las élites redefinen estilos de vida y futuros, en los círculos de ecología política y justicia medioambiental persiste un duro debate sobre el potencial de la tecnología para potenciar estos movimientos. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto DIVERSE, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, desafía la sabiduría convencional explorando la intersección entre digitalización y activismo de base. En concreto, a través de la recopilación de datos cualitativos, el análisis cuantitativo y los índices innovadores, el equipo de DIVERSE pretende teorizar un modelo alternativo arraigado en el cuidado, la comunidad y la conexión personal.

Objetivo

Does the digital divide deprive movements for environmental justice (EJ) and in defence of biocultural diversity from the benefits of digitalisation? DIVERSE’s hypotheses resist the idea. From drone monitoring of forests to indigenous digital media and online mapping to vindicate stories of resistance and transformation, a digital transformation from the ground up may not only be paving the way for just and diverse futures but also for an alternative understanding of digitalisation. Yet no large-scale scientific study has examined the occurrence of digitalisation in grassroots transformative initiatives (GTI) nor theorised its effects. While elite-and growth-driven digital innovations are redefining lifestyles and overall imaginaries of the future, a strong debate in the fields of political ecology and EJ involves two confronted views (celebratory vs technophobic) on the likelihood of enfranchising technologies. DIVERSE’s overarching goal is to theorise an alternative model of digital transformation rooted in relationality (care, community, personal connection) that emerges from GTI in their pursuit of diverse worlds and EJ. The ground-breaking approach combines qualitative data (from expert interviews and databases compilation worldwide, to case-studies and biographical interviews across continents) with quantitative methods and models to analyse these data (e.g. two newly created indices, transformative effectiveness and GTI digitalisation, and a first global compilation of digital practices in GTI), offering both an understanding of causal chains and a basis for generalisation. DIVERSE proposes the new concepts of “life-centred digitalisation” including both livelihoods and ecology, and “situated digital leadership”, disclosing the specific links of digitalisation with changes in material experiences, situated knowledge and place-based digital ecologies. My ultimate goal in terms of theory is to lay out the foundations of a political ecology of digitalisation.