Empowering voices: Digital technologies and counter-narratives on environmental and socioeconomic crises in North Africa

Abstract

Speaker: Chiara Loschi, University of Bologna Discussant: Federica Zardo, Danube University Krems This presentation delves into the role of digital technologies as exploited by activists addressing socio-economic and environmental issues in North Africa during recent years. The talk will focus on case studies that drill more specifically into the relationship between the web of interconnected challenges including environmental justice, climate change, migration, resource scarcity, and economic disparities, and the digital and mediated activism that is trying to advance counter-narratives on these topics. Drawing from Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship, the speaker will explore the interplay of agency, politics, and knowledge production in the realm of digital activism. Additionally, the presentation explores the evolving landscape of digital activism and technologies in the Arab world aiming at debating de-politicization, counter-publics, and the frictions between activism and digital media technologies more than a decade after the Arab uprisings.