The promotion of digital inclusion into education systems has its challenges, like fostering technological prosperity in places and countries that lack fundamental things, like food, water, regular/offline education, and formal employment. However, this proposal believes that digital literacy and human rights can walk as paralel agendas and can be addressed equally in a timely and quality matter. Furthermore, this project is guided by main questions such as: what is problematic about the implementation of digital technologies, e.g. regarding data trading and related (digital) exploitation of vulnerable and/or marginalized groups? What could/should be done in order to adapt international guidelines to the demands of technology users, educators, pupils and students in the Global South? How can they be empowered to become active agents, designers and decision makers rather than marginalised users exposed to data exploitation? With these questions in mind, this project wants to promote a series of webinars and “justicethons” [similar to hackathons] with representatives of educational initiatives: startups, third sector, government, culture sector and civil society from countries in the South. These engagement initiatives will have as deliverables a list of recommendations/answers to be further discussed in national contexts, as well as international scientific publications and reports. The justicethons aim also to foster further grant applications, high impact scientific publications, qualifications and scalability of this project to other geographies. This project has already been initiated, being sponsored by the Teach@Tubingen program in the Winter Semester 2021/2022 and is now ongoing and applying for a continuation for the Spring Semester 2022 within the same program.

“Sympoieisis of the Invisible” is an initiative which sheds light on different appropriations of digital technology across the Global South. Departing from the term “sympoiesis”- adapted by Donna Haraway (2016) in her rereading of the principle of autopoiesis (Maturana, 2001), sympoiesis is both a “making with” and a “becoming with”, meaning that the actant - when in action - transforms itself in this process. In this project, the term sympoiesis is taken as a metalinguistic creative process, arguing that not only humans change in their interaction with technology, but also their understanding of the world, together with the technology itself. Insofar this project follows a constructive digital approach, the main goal here is to unveil colonial structures surrounding the digital environment in the Global South, with the ultimate aim to promote tech decolonization practices and solutions in education and cultural settings.

In order to reason about this subject, the project selects geographies in the Global South to understand, within its geographical and cultural perimeter, what are the definitions and appropriation about technology in education and societal environments.