Infrastructing care: Diversity advocacy in digitalisation efforts in the Global South and North

Forschungsfrage / These

What are the local actions that diversity advocacy communities carry out to make the Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) community truly diverse? What role do culture, socioeconomic, political and technological conditions play?

Beschreibung

Promoting the participation of females and other marginalised groups in the ICT field is based on the perceived economic benefits of a diverse labour force, on ethical considerations such as justice and equality, and in the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) community on reasons such as joy, agency, empowerment, and emancipation, which are proper of their voluntaristic character. Nevertheless, these groups remain a minority in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the IT labour market, and the FLOSS community. To address this issue and increase diversity in FLOSS, numerous groups of women and minorities have been emerging since the beginning of the 21st century. However, what are their values, ideals, motivations, and practices? What do they care about and for? This research examines diversity advocacy groups in Germany and Argentina to identify similarities and differences, and to account for the role that culture, socioeconomic, political and technological conditions play in their development. The aim is to present how these voluntaristic collectives provide care- material, non-material, affective, and emotional assistance- and work to remove barriers for IT to be truly diverse. 

Partner

Gefördert vom Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg aus
Mitteln der Landesdigitalisierungsstrategie digital@bw.