Anticolonial, Participatory, and Speculative Futures for ICTD: A Research Agenda
Abstract
The field of Information & Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) has much to celebrate, in that the reach of digital networks and associated technologies has expanded dramatically with many positive impacts for sustainable development. And yet, in recent years the field has been dominated by discussions and questions about its future as a distinct field of academic inquiry. Drawing on diverse ICTD projects from around the world, this talk argues that increased engagement with theories and methods related to anticolonial, participatory, and speculative design can spur exciting new research directions to reinvigorate the field.
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Presenter Bio
Jason Young is a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Washington Information School, where he also directs the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA). His research explores the politics that shape what forms of knowledge come to matter within different socio-cultural contexts, with an emphasis on the role of technological practice in shaping these epistemic politics. His research asks, for example, how the use of information & communication technologies (ICTs) are re-shaping colonial hierarchies between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, and how socio-cultural and emotional dynamics produce vulnerabilities and attachments to misinformation. His projects strongly emphasize community-based, participatory approaches with applied goals, but are also inspired by and draw from a broad range of postcolonial, feminist, and critical theories. He received his PhD from the University of Washington Department of Geography in 2017.