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The scope of this Workshop is to explore practices of digitalization’s appropriation on the Global South, especially with respect to issues of education and culture when in contrast with environments of poverty and technology discrimination. Appropriation in connection to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Latin America can be defined as the process through which an object (and specifically in this case, a technology) is external or belongs to other(s) and it is made of one’s own (Delaney, 2010), and for that reason has an important political lens. Furthermore, according to Sandoval (2019) the notion of  appropriation can have either an instrumentalist bias [related to dominating tools/skills] (Morales, 2017, 2018; Subercaseaux, 1988) or more closely associated to the process of text interpretation [in regards to the ability of reading the surrounding world] (Martín-Barbero, 1987, 2003). 

With that in mind, the focus of this initiative will be on digitalization and the exploitation of vulnerable groups in the Global South and on how far can appropriation of technology improve global digital justice in the field of education. The promotion of digital education and the implementation of new technology to that end is problematic because it often ignores the lack of basic resources, including teachers and schools in the first place. However, this workshop believes that digital literacy and human rights can walk as paralel agendas and can be addressed equally in a timely and quality manner.

In order to reason about this subject, we select 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. In 2021, the chosen geography was Brazil, and members of five spheres [government, academia, private, civil society and culture] were invited to a workshop to express their comprehension and concerns about the topic of Decolonization of Technology in Education. Alongside Brazilian specialists, assistants of other nationalities participated in the discussion - mainly from Colombia and Canada.

The second workshop will take place on April 7th 2022 and will discuss an Argentinian perspective of technology decolonization in cultural practices [following the work of Anibal Quijano (1992), it is possible to grasp that coloniality is a structure of power, which suggests that post-coloniality or decolonization is also a structure of power but in a reverse order, also known as emancipation and independence]. It can be said that coloniality and decoloniality have a lot to do with technological or sociotechnical imaginaries. With the goal to build a bridge between an academic and scientific dialogue and the pragmatic nature of digital empowerment, we will foster a second round of specialists from the five spheres aforementioned, that together we hope will convey a comprehensive reading on the current status of Argentinian appropriation of Technology. Furthermore, Argentinian specialists are being invited alongside participants from other countries to compose the group of speakers. 

As overarching questions, it is possible to list the following:

1. What does it mean to promote meaningful digital technology appropriation in Argentina?
2. How is digital technology used and (culturally) appropriated by different societal groups/actors/agents in Argentina? Additionally, what does digital technology mean to habitants of the region? What are the specific political/societal/historical circumstances that mark tech development, tech usage, tech appropriation in the territory?
3. What are the modalities of developing and distributing technology in Argentina? Who is developing technology for whom? What are the power relations between different stakeholders involved in the development and distribution of the technology?
4. What educational tools and digital instruments are available in schools and universities in Argentina and how do they influence how students learn (not just learn about the topics but learn in the sense of developing their characters and attitudes towards the world)?

Due to the current pandemic, the workshop will take place in a hybrid format: in the morning we plan to foster a “Warm Up Talk” at the IZEW Universität Tübingen for those who can participate in presence. In the afternoon, an online session will take place for those who cannot be there in person.