Nicole Sylvia Goedhart (Athena Institute, VU University, Amsterdam), Teun Zuiderent-Jerak (Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam), Christine Dedding (Metamedica, Amsterdam UMC-location VUmc), Jacqueline E.W. Broerse (Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam) j.e.w.broerse@vu.nl
virPrague 20: Experiments in Collaboration and Critical Participation
In this feminist STS-informed Participatory Action Research (PAR) project, we co-created vlogs with women living in disadvantaged neighborhoods to unravel the complex interactions between ICT use and socio-demographics such as race, class, age, sexuality, and disability. Co-creating vlogs was successful for studying this complex interaction since the vlogs gave deep insights into difficulties the involved women experienced in the digitalized society. This project showed us that ICT education should match women’s complex daily reality in which time and energy is limited. Also, ICT education seems to be more successful when located where they already go, for example, language training.
This project did create ripples of change. The women, who seldom get a voice at a policy level, could articulate and show what is important to them by sharing their complexities, preferences, needs, and knowledge through vlogs. By watching the vlogs involved policymakers clearly felt the urge for action. Also, the vlogs are included in a co-created provocative paper-based end-product (see image), to support language volunteers to integrate ICT in their language classes. In this way, the vlogs are used in a more intimate setting, guided by participatory principles, and thereby of educational value for other women in vulnerable circumstances.