Research

Research

In times of rapid, digitally-induced change, the knowledge space becomes a key area of capture and contestation. The state of play in the realm of concepts and frameworks is therefore a significant site for critical examination and informed action. Theoretical lenses and empirical facts must be used skilfully to trace who defines emergent social, economic and political ideas and how interests of different actors are impacted. IT for Change has been at the cutting edge of critical research, not only de-constructing dominant approaches and concepts in relation to digital developments, but also articulating alternative frameworks rooted in ideals of social justice and equity.

Fair, Green and Global Alliance

Development and Democracy
2021 - Ongoing
IT for Change is excited to be a member of the Fair, Green and Global Alliance (FGG) – a consortium of eight global organizations – whose goal is to expand civil society voices to make trade and global supply chains just and fair in Global South contexts.
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Current Projects

Global Digital Compact

Internet governance
2023 - Ongoing
The Global Digital Justice Forum, led by a digital justice vision, is a diverse group of development organizations, digital rights networks, feminist groups, trade unions, and corporate watchdogs.
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Intelligent Infrastructures - For a People-Centered Digital Society

Internet governance
2021 - Ongoing
IT for Change's research series on Intelligence Infrastructures interrogates essential digital infrastructures that underpin the economy, society, and governance, putting the spotlight on the need for democratic control of these building blocks of tomorrow. Policies must straddle a people-centric vision of tech-design and institutional mechanisms so that these infrastructures can deepen social and public value, rather than undermine them.
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Towards Gender Just Public Information System Design

Development and Democracy, Gender
2021 - Ongoing
IT for Change has undertaken a project to frame gender-just design principles for the various components of information systems being used to implement public welfare schemes. This includes the design of citizen facing applications, data sharing guidelines, and overall database design, among others.
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Future of Rights and Citizenship in the Digital Age

Internet governance
2020 - Ongoing
Future of Rights and Citizenship in the Digital Age seeks to identify and address challenges emerging from increased usage of data and algorithms in society. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, this project will undertake systematic, evidence-based research and advocacy towards a citizen-oriented framework for data and algorithmic governance in India.
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Featured projects

Voice or Chatter
Round Table on Inclusion in the Network Society
Research on ICT in Education
Women's rights online
Women-gov
CITIGEN Asia
Information Society for the South

 

Reform the Gig: Research and Advocacy on Platform Workers' Rights in India

Development and Democracy
2020 - Ongoing
IT for Change's research and advocacy track on labor aims to consider the emergent challenges for workers and laborers in the digital economy, and build a new frontier of labor rights for the 21st century. Our work is primarily concerned with the working conditions of and social security for gig workers, the moral and legal responsibilities of platforms, and workers’ privacy and data rights.
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The Feminist Observatory of the Internet

Gender
2020 - Ongoing
IT for Change, with support from the World Wide Web Foundation, is deepening the conceptual reflections on emerging feminist debates in platform society. By engaging in nuanced debates, dialogues and discussions on women in digital economy, we seek to build influence in shaping public debate in this domain. This will be done through the publication of articles and interviews bringing multidisciplinary and geographically diverse perspectives on feminist struggles into the current paradigm. Research Outputs Gender
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Health Data as Global Public Good: Project for Foundation Botnar

Development and Democracy
2020 - Ongoing

We are pleased to announce that Fondation Botnar has commissioned IT for Change to develop a framework focusing on ‘Health Data as Global Public Good' that centrally includes community ownership of data into it. The research for this project will lay out the nature, role and governance of health data in the emerging digital society and economy. The project aims develop an understanding of these issues a

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Centering Women in India's Digitalizing Economy

Gender
2020 - ongoing
IT for Change and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), with support from the European Commission (EU), are undertaking a five-year (2020-2024) project on Gender and the Digital Economy, called 'Re-wiring India's Digitalising Economy for Women's Rights and Well-being: An Action-oriented Knowledge Intervention'. This project is supported by a grant from the EU under an EU-India cooperation titled 'Civil Society Organisations: Enhancing CSOs'…
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Data Governance Network

Internet governance
2020 - ongoing
The Data Governance Network (DGN) was established by the IDFC Institute in 2019 to bring together some of India's leading policy think-tanks. It identifies policy gaps in data governance and seeks to bridge them through policy interventions, research and advocacy. IT for Change was selected to be one of the four research nodes in the DGN for our research rigor and evidence of engagement in policy domains.
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Recognize, Resist, Remedy: Addressing Gender-Based Hate Speech in the Online Public Sphere

Gender
2020 - ongoing
IT for Change is engaged in a project that addresses gender-based hate speech in the online public sphere. Supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, the project responds to the current reality in India where women are not only speaking up against patriarchy, but also claiming public-political space despite pervasive sexism and misogyny. It adopts three main strategies: (a) highlighting blind spots in dominant
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Assessing the AI Moment from a Global South Perspective

Development and Democracy, Internet governance
2019 - ongoing
From the standpoint of the Global South, IT for Change has engaged with unpacking the AI revolution, straddling design justice questions with a broader political economy perspective on the dilemmas of AI governance. Our research and policy engagement seeks to center development sovereignty questions and cognitive.
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Feminist Digital Justice

Gender
2018 - ongoing
Feminist Digital Justice is a collaborative research and advocacy initiative of IT for Change and DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era). We aim to re-interpret the emerging techno-social paradigm from a Southern feminist standpoint. The project foregrounds debates at the intersection of enduring feminist concerns about gender justice and women’s human rights on the one hand, and emerging issues at the digital frontier on the other. It responds to the urgent need for Southern visions of transformative change in these times of paradigmatic shift, exhorting feminists from the South to engage with the political economy of data, and to use their knowledge and experience to re-frame the debates. In doing this, we seek to support and strengthen informed and cutting edge feminist analysis and action.
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Latest publications

Implementation of the RTE - Where do we stand?

Beyond Platform Integration: Unpacking the True Promise of Digital Inclusion for MSMEs in India

Digital Economic Integration of MSMEs in the Global South

Beyond Big Tech: A Framework for Building a New and Fair Digital Economy

Study of the 'Little KITEs' Program implemented by Kerala

Think Pieces 2024: Gender and Digital Inclusion| Call for Proposals

National Gender Fellowship 2024: Gender Inclusion in the Digital Economy | Call for Proposals

Issues Paper on Data for Development prepared by UNCTAD Secretariat

Centring Rights in the Platform Workplace

Creating Sustainable Data Cooperatives in the Global South: Frameworks for Institutional Support
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Past Projects

Righting Gender Wrongs

Gender
2018

This exploratory research study of gender-based cyber violence was led by IT for Change with feminist partners across six sites of study in India, and covered the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The research used mixed methods - self administered surveys with college students between the ages of 19-23, key informant interviews with law enforcement officials, women’s rights lawyers and activists, family court lawyers, counselors,

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Platform Policies

Internet governance
2020
In April 2017, with support from the International Development Research Centre, Canada, IT for Change initiated a multi-country research study to map the key issues/concerns for the rights and inclusion agenda, stemming from pervasive platformisation. Through a detailed analysis of digital platforms, the project seeks to garner insights about key policy implications on access to data, competition, economic opportunity, and innovation.
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ONLINE FREEDOM FOR ALL = NO UNFREEDOM FOR WOMEN - A PROJECT ON TECHNOLOGY-MEDIATED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Gender
2017 - 2018
World-over, technology-mediated violence against women is growing to be a serious social problem. Women’s full and free participation in digital spaces presupposes a safe online environment, but going online seem to be fraught with the risk of violence for women. Governments, especially in countries in the global South, are yet to bring their laws and institutions up-to-speed, to effectively respond to this issue. Against this backdrop, IT for Change and the World Wide Web Foundation initiated 'Online Freedom for All = No Unfreedom for Women', a project that intends to trigger national-level policy dialogues on balancing the right to free speech online with women's right to freedom from technology-mediated violence, in India and Bangladesh.
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OER Adoption: Phase II

Education
2017
As part of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) network anchored by the University of Cape Town, IT for Change is undertaking an action research project on building a sustainable environment for OER access-creation-curation-publishing. In the first phase of the project, the Karnataka Open Educational Resources(KOER) programme for the co-creation of OER within a teachers' community of learning was studied. The project is currently exploring what it takes to build a scaled-up OER model that can become a systemic approach to teacher professional development in the public education system.
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E-government and Gender Equality in the Asia-Pacific

Gender
2016
In 2016, IT for Change carried out a five-country research study on gender and e-government in the Asia-Pacific, in partnership with UNESCAP and UNPOG. This study examined how e-government norms, rules and practices impact institutional shifts towards gender equality and women’s empowerment by focusing on its key components – service delivery, citizen uptake and connectivity architecture. The second phase of the study, to create an online training toolkit on e-government and gender equality for policymakers, is currently in progress.
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Research on ICT in Education

Education
2017
The research projects undertaken by the The Centre for Education and Technology, IT for Change focus on cutting edge issues of ICT integration in education – collaborative OER models, professional learning communities of teachers and free and open technologies. We combine our research and programmatic work to make policy/programmatic framework recommendations to governments. The Centre also evaluates government and non-government ICT programs in education.
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Learn more about our event on Socializing Data Value

Socializing Data Value