Digital Politics Summer School 2024: Digital Harms.
Our Summer School opens its online doors for the first year running! This year, we are focusing on theorising and challenging digital harms. The School will consist of a roundtable discussion and two interactive workshops. Attendance is free but registration is required: please check the links below and register separately for each session you wish to attend.
Programme
The School will take place on Teams. All times are in UK/London time zone - please use a time converter if needed.
- Day 1: 20 May 11am-1pm. Conceptualising digital harms. A roundtable with Avi Boukli, Jessica Elias, Will Mbioh and Patrick Williams. Register here
- Day 2: 24 May 10am-12noon. Composting Digital Harms: Can we Permaculture our way out? A workshop with Dani Admiss
Register here - Day 3: 30 May 1pm-3pm. Navigating the Intersection of Environmental Justice and Digital Innovation. A workshop with Camille Minns and Sanjana Paul. Register here
Further details
Day 1: Conceptualising digital harms
The roundtable is taking place face-to-face but will be streamed on-line. The roundtable is part of an on-site workshop on digital harms, and is also availabel to the participants of the Summer School to attend remotely. During the panel, our speakers will discuss their approaches to conceptualising digital harms. The speakers come from a range of interdisciplinary backgrounds spanning critical criminology, sociology, environmental studies, feminist studies, zemiology, surveillance studies, post-colonial studies, and technology studies.
Day 2: Composting Digital Harms: Can we Permaculture our way out?
Digital harms, and their impact on the environment, are a ‘wicked problem’, but what about our responses? Have we gotten used to the idea that there is one big solution that trumps all others and some versions of it
end up everywhere i.e. more surveillance, more measuring, further out of sight, etc. This workshop proposes that digital harms require local, contextual, creative and just place-making responses. Can we permaculture our way out of digital harms? This session is about imaginatively applying permaculture principles to use what we have to make things better. Can digital production be part of regenerative practices now and in the future?
What links between things are needed to do this? How can we place true costs, values and rights to living beings and the ecosystems we depend on? Participants will be making an accordion book in their own location. Please prepare coloured pencils or pens, card for folding, and a pair of scissors.
Day 3: Navigating the Intersection of Environmental Justice and Digital Innovation.
In an era of rapid technological advancement, it is crucial to critically examine the impact of digital technologies on the environment and marginalized communities. This interactive workshop invites participants from diverse interdisciplinary backgrounds to engage in a process of "critical visioning" to explore the complex interplay between technology, environmental justice, and social equity. Through a series of thought-provoking activities and discussions, attendees will delve into the potential positive and negative outcomes of technology-driven environmental solutions, focusing on both utopian and dystopian scenarios. By examining the wide-ranging harms of digitalization and technologization, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the ethical implications of technology development and deployment through an environmental justice lens. Ultimately, this workshop aims to inspire participants to become more active agents in shifting the culture of technology towards environmental justice, providing them with a framework for critical visioning and collaborative problem-solving.