Community-based Digital Empowerment: A Liberatory Learning Model for Transformative Community Development

• In Event: Digital empowerment and transformation

Proposal

How do we begin to imagine the future of education within a more digital society without including the voices calling not only for inclusion and participation, but social transformation? What does a digital society look like for those historically excluded? How do we use this opportunity to develop a more just digital world? These are fundamental questions to ask when envisioning a digital future where unequal power structures limit the control over others' lives, freedoms, and technology (Kabeer, 1999, 2005; Sen, 1999). For this reason, it is essential to define more appropriate paradigms for digital development and empowerment in education (Hajisoteriou & Sorkos, 2023; Heeks, 2017, 2022). This is an important first step in the conceptualization of transformational approaches to education in a digital world. The literature urges us to ask and explore how the digital contributes to the transformational processes of people and education for development (Heeks et al., 2023). This social process of reimagining and deconstructing of current digital assumptions provides a route for renegotiating and reconceptualizing the way we understand and create knowledge and technology. This is to say, the leading sustainable development paradigm will not sustain digital approaches for development if they do not focus on the empowerment and transformative potential of education in LMICs. Digital transformation for development (DX4D) calls for “collaborative action research that aims to share good practices and lessons between similar development stakeholders” to create communities of practice among various stakeholders, but most importantly, among local change agents (Heeks et al., 2023, p. 20).

Methods

The study involved two favelas from the Sustainable Favela Network (SFN), “a grassroots network to recognize, strengthen, and multiply sustainable initiatives across Rio de Janeiro’s favelas” comprised of 700 local and non-local community mobilizers and technical allies (SFN, 2024). The Brazilian favelas involved in this study (Complexo da Pedreira, Costa Barros and Éden, Sao Joao de Meriti) are among the most marginalized given their location at the northern peripheries of the network lacking visibility compared to their partner favelas located near the touristic south zone of Rio de Janeiro. Grounded in the locally-valued and -accepted favela paradigm and approach for development, this study operated through the understanding that favelas, given their 120-year history of resistance, power, and urbanism, hold the potential to serve as a model for a more sustainable (and digital) urban future (Aguiar, 2006; SFN, 2024). The study used the Asset-based Community Development approach, internally producing and utilizing data to describe the local digital ecosystem of favela community mobilization and identify assets to produce localized digital development targets and goals (Kretzmann and McKnight, 2003). Based on these internally validated targets and goals, leadership from both favela community organizations and technical allies from the SFN developed learning outcomes for a pilot course aimed at reaching empowerment, global citizenship and digital inclusion for community mobilizers within their organization to “multiplicar” (multiply) their impact (SFN, 2024). Based on these three overarching themes (empowerment, global citizenship, and digital inclusion), the participants (community mobilizers) as research collaborators used the J-PAL's women's and girls’ empowerment framework to define and create empowerment indicators and the principles for DX4D to define and identify digital empowerment indicators within a micro-level context to understand how “individual capabilities and positionality impact personal transformation within a local digital society (Glennerster, Walsh & Diaz-Martin, 2018; Heeks et al., 2023).

Appropriately, a transformational, liberatory pedagogical approach was used throughout to build capacity to create and validate the data used to establish the evaluation indicators for the empowerment, global citizenship and digital inclusion course. The study used video and audio recordings to document liberatory elements of the learning process (dialogue, active participation, critical thinking, recognition of power dynamics, and socio-emotional wellbeing) to develop the evaluation measures.

Findings

The findings critically describe localized understanding of community mobilization, empowerment, ICT, and digital transformation. Coded data from focus group activities showed common themes in digital perspectives related to positionalities and identities. Although advanced technology was actively used, it was not generally valued more than low-tech technology and digital fatigue was common. Digital value was assessed by its utility in practice. Among the findings, participants expressed feelings of growth and empowerment at the conclusion of the study stating they felt “empowered,” “fulfilled” and “strong enough to help with whatever is needed.” Active participation and collaboration in the research study was expressed as being empowering. Additionally, the findings showed the study was successful in building a sense of community and support among the community mobilizers. The class meetings provided space to situate themselves within the world, reflect, heal, and conceptualize new digital opportunities and realities.

Implications

This applied study presents evidence towards a learning model that answers the DX4D call for local approaches understanding how “individuals experience and participate in digital transformation for development” and “how their capabilities and their positionalities impact DX4D” (Heeks et al., 2023, p. 19-20). This community research study aimed to accelerate community development through digitally empowered community mobilizers by expanding their impact globally by multiplying agency, capacity, collaboration, and learning through a transformative, culturally relevant, and digitally transforming pedagogical approach. The future of this work aims at “radical change in development [and empowerment] processes and [power] structures” enabled and afforded by digital and social systems (Heeks et al., 2022, 2023; Qureshi, 2023).

Limitations

A limitation of this research is its micro-level definition of empowerment and approach to community development that may not be generalizable in the larger LMIC contexts; however, this approach provides an opportunity to test the impact potential of this digital transformation for development learning model among similar networks to inform macro-level models for DX4D (Heeks et al., 2024).

Future studies should aim to expand individual and community digital capabilities and empowerment across similar contexts to inform policy-driven assessments for innovation and transformation in educational approaches, while holding accountable states in the public and popular education sector for learning and development in a more digital and urban society.

Authors

• Armando Jose Torres, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Samantha Lindgren, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign