IT for Change is pleased to announce the call for applications for the second edition of its residential institute on ‘Frontiers and Frames for a New Digitality,’ organized by the School of Digital Justice, IT for Change and supported by the Fair, Green and Global Alliance.
🗓 Date: March 2025 (final dates to be confirmed)
📍 Location: Southeast Asia (final location to be confirmed)
⏳ Duration: 5 days (excluding travel)
📄 Read the detailed call here.
🔗 To apply please complete this online form by 30 November, 2024, 11.59 PM IST. Results will be announced by December 15, 2024.
As the fault lines of contestation are being redefined for social movements across sectors, and the digital becomes an increasingly prominent and inevitable agenda for advocacy, this institute aims to equip civil society actors with the necessary vocabulary, tools, and capacities to effectively frame and approach emerging digital intersections in their work, as well as to develop strategies for effective political organization.
The institute will enable emerging civil society leaders in Global South spaces to:
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Learn about, critically examine, and assess unfolding trends in the political economy and the impact of platformization and AI.
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Make relevant connections and chart solutions and intervention pathways for effective political organization.
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Become part of an ongoing community of activist-scholars, development professionals, and researchers from the Global South to strengthen Southern perspective-building on digital justice.
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Map and identify common struggles across regions, providing avenues for new and collective models of resistance, while enhancing the collective bargaining capacity of the Global South on the international stage.
This institute is part of IT for Change’s flagship pedagogical initiative—School of Digital Justice—which aims to further the vision of re-imagining and realizing socio-structural transformation for a just digital economy. The School of Digital Justice seeks to democratize discourse and perspective-building on the digital through legal-institutional, feminist, and political economy approaches.
About the Institute
The institute will introduce participants to the political economy of the digital and provide an overview of critical trends, developments, and debates. Indicative areas we will explore include:
- Data Capitalism and Intelligence Corporations
- The Intelligence Corporation: A primer on the platform business model, data capital, and the new phase of knowledge capitalism, including the transition from the industrial corporation to the intelligence corporation.
- Historicizing Big Tech’s Monopoly: Exploring Big Tech’s market power, the nexus between financialization and datafication, e-commerce and platform value chains, and the privatization of the digital commons.
- Global Digital Governance Deficits: Challenges in enforcing corporate accountability in global data value chains and the legacy of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
- Policy Issues and Responses: Big Tech regulation and containing market power, recent trends in data policy and governance, and moving toward a rule of law for the digital economy.
- Feminist Visions of Digital Justice
- The Digital Economy through a Feminist Lens: Feminist perspectives on the digital economy, labor and the future of work, social reproduction, and datafication.
- Feminist Social Contract for a New Digital Economic Future: A feminist digital welfare state, gender-inclusive public infrastructures, and transformative imaginaries of the platform economy.
- Feminist Digital Publics: Algorithmic hate, platform accountability debates, and feminist techno-political imaginaries for governing the digital public sphere.
- Digitalization and Future of Work
- Countering Algorithmic Management: Exploring data-based worker surveillance, the tyranny of algorithmic workplaces, and the critical role of worker data rights.
- Decent Work in the Platform Economy: Examining ILO debates on worker rights in the AI era, emerging frontiers for decent work in the platform economy, and national innovations in labor regulation.
- Challenges and Opportunities for Worker Organization and Mobilization: Unpacking institutional challenges to traditional unionization, lessons from new forms of worker political organizing, and the rise of worker-led digital platform models.
- Data and AI governance
- New Frontiers for Data and AI Governance: Exploring the Global Digital Compact and emerging global arrangements for the regulation of data and AI.
- Critical Policy Approaches to Data: Analyzing key concepts like ‘cross-border data flows,’ data commons for the SDGs, data justice principles, and data stewardship models for the Global South.
- Comparing Data Governance Approaches: Investigating trends in the US, EU, China, and India; unpacking the idea of technological sovereignty; and exploring data governance for digital industrial policy.
- Data-enabled Governance and the State
- The Rise of Digitalized Citizen Infrastructure: Examining datafication in critical development sectors like health, education, and agriculture, alongside the marketization of state programs and public services, privatization of public resources, and the concept of government as a platform.
- Digital Dispossession and Citizen Rights in the Digital Polity: Analyzing the datafication of state and governance systems, the introduction of AI-based automated governance, data-driven surveillance, and their impact on citizen rights.
Who can Apply?
To be considered for a place in the institute, applicants must:
- Reside and/or work in the Global South.
- Be proficient in English (the institute will be conducted in English).
The institute is ideally suited for:
- Civil society activists, scholars/researchers, program managers, or development practitioners from the Global South, working on digital rights, climate justice and biodiversity, labor issues, gender justice, trade justice, or international development politics.
- Individuals curious about how digitalization has transformed their fields/domains of research and eager to understand legal and public policy shifts.
- Those interested in exploring intersections of law, technology, and policy, as well as the dynamics of the data economy and its implications for development, human rights, social justice, gender equality, and labor rights.
- People in a position to make concrete, strategic changes within their current roles.
While we prioritize building institutional capacities, we also encourage independent change-makers to apply.
What to Expect?
The institute offers an exciting opportunity for participants to learn from leading activists, thinkers, and experts in the field who will serve as resource persons throughout the sessions.
Through readings, lectures, case-study sessions, and group activities, participants will:
- Broaden their understanding of datafication and digitalization of our economy and society, and define the key challenges for digital rights, global justice and democratic governance in the era of digital capitalism.
- Explore theoretical frameworks on platform economy, digitization of political economic relations and the idea of citizenship within the digital paradigm.
- Gain insights into current policy debates on the digital, and emerging faultlines in the international developmental context.
- Explore further research and advocacy of synchronous projects along with opportunities for collaborative work.
- Meet and develop long-term relationships with a committed community working at the forefront of social change.
Cost
IT for Change will cover lodging and meals for all participants. Accommodation will be provided on a twin-sharing basis.
Organizations nominating team members are encouraged to cover the travel costs for their applicants. A limited number of travel fellowships are available for participants or organizations unable to fund travel. (If a travel fellowship is required, please indicate this in the application form.)
Venue & Accommodation
The residential institute will be held for five days in March 2025 in Southeast Asia (final dates and location to be confirmed). Participants are expected to arrive one day in advance and stay for the entire duration of the course.
All participants must have current and valid travel documents, including a passport and visa.
Please note that only selected candidates will be notified about the status of their application.
Please consult the FAQ section below to see if your query/clarification has been addressed. If not, please write to us @ schoolofdigitaljustice[@]itforchange[.]net
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- Can I apply for this institute?
- I have a question about the application process
- I have a question about funding
Can I apply for this institute?
1. I don’t have any immersion or orientation in digital issues, but I am looking to explore this area in general. Can I apply for this institute?
A: This is not a crash course on digital issues for individuals with a general interest in the field. Its core vision is to support and catalyze Southern leadership in the digital justice domain, contributing to field-building and agenda-setting. Please consider this before applying.
The institute targets people at leadership levels in an organization/network/social movement or independent activists/scholars able to contribute to future agendas in the digital justice domain. While the cohort of participants may be drawn from diverse locations with immersion in either sectoral or crosscutting digital issues, the selection will prioritize those in the thick of/able to shape digital rights debates and politics from a Southern standpoint.
Before applying, please judge your fitment for the institute and the value proposition you can get from, and bring to, it based on these considerations. Please also see Qs 2-6 for more on this.
2. I live and work in the Global South. However, during the institute, I will be working/studying at an organization/university in the Global North. Am I still eligible to apply for the institute and for the travel fellowship?
A: Yes. Anyone working on digital rights and development issues in the Global South, but residing elsewhere, is eligible to apply for the institute and the travel fellowship. If there is any ambiguity about whether your work/residence is regarded to be in the Global South, please write to us at schoolofdigitaljustice@itforchange.net, and we will get back to you.
3. I am an activist working on land and forest rights. Do I stand a chance if I apply?
A: Yes, you do! What is important is that you are able to show your ability to deeply explore the issues of digitality, and your commitment to engage/stay engaged in work at the intersection of climate or natural resources and emerging digitalization questions. It will also be important to illustrate the manner in which you will be able to apply the technical knowledge you gain at the institute to further your work in your field.
4. I am a mid-career professional/academic working mainly on data privacy issues on social welfare. I am not so familiar with other debates. Can I still apply?
A: Yes. You may have worked on a particular or narrow digital issue, but your selection depends on demonstrated expertise and experience in this, and whether you are able to demonstrate how you will explore the changing terrain of digital justice politics in shaping your future work.
5. I am a program officer in a foundation that is planning to start a new line of work on digital rights. Will the institute be open to having me although my work in this domain in the past has only been sporadic?
A: Yes. We are open to considering candidates who can demonstrate that the knowledge tools gained from the institute will be applied for sustained engagement in shaping the digital rights field from a Southern standpoint.
6. I am very keen to benefit from the institute, but have a very busy schedule in the coming months. If selected I would be happy to travel, but may be unable to join all sessions. Can I still apply?
We expect that selected participants are able to be present at all sessions of the institute and take part in the structured activities. If selected, you will also need to invest about 6 hours in the lead-up to the institute to familiarize yourself with the course outline and suggested readings. If you are likely to be pulled into unpredictable and urgent work before/during the institute preventing you from 100% involvement, you may wish to make way for other candidates and avoid applying this time.
I have a question about the application process
7. I am affiliated with an organization/academic institution. What should the letter of recommendation from my organization include?
A: The letter should include a show of support for your attendance at the institute, outline pertinent details of your work and experience in brief, and indicate whether your organization will be able to fund your travel. In case your organization is unable to fund your travel, please indicate your requirement for a travel fellowship in the relevant part of the application. Not being able to secure organizational travel funding will not count against you.
8. Is it mandatory that the recommendation letter provider be the head of my organization? Can someone else provide the recommendation letter?
A: Ideally, this is preferred. But if you think your application is better served by a different reference, you can choose to obtain a letter of recommendation from anyone who has worked with you or is well-versed with your work.
However, since this is a residential institute, we want to be sure that if selected, the participant will be exempted from professional responsibilities for the week of the institute. Please ensure you have considered this and consulted with your employer about obtaining the necessary time off before agreeing to the declaration at the end of the application form.
9. I am an unaffiliated, independent researcher. Who can provide my professional letter of recommendation and what should it include?
A: The letter can be from someone who has worked with you and is well-versed with your work in your area of expertise. It can include any experience you may have with digital justice issues in the Global South, demonstrating your commitment to take the learnings from the institute forward.
10. Multiple team members within my organization are interested in applying for the institute. Can I nominate more than one person?
A: Yes, as a head or organization/senior team member you can nominate more than one person to apply for the institute. Final selection will depend on multiple criteria including strength of application, overall geographic, gender, sectoral representation, and other aspects. Please note however that it is highly unlikely we will be able to offer travel funding for more than one person from a given organization.
I have a question about funding
11. What does the travel fellowship include?
A: The travel fellowship includes round-trip economy airfare, travel to and from the venue, and meals and boarding (based on shared occupancy) for the duration of the institute. It does not include visa processing costs, vaccination costs, travel insurance, local commute to the airport, international data/phone plans, excess baggage, or any additional room service requests. If your organization is able to cover your air travel, your travel to and from the venue and meals and boarding (based on shared occupancy) for the duration of the institute will be covered by IT for Change.
12. Will there be any expenses I need to be prepared to bear?
A: You /your organization will need to pay for visa processing costs and any Covid-19-related vaccination requirements if any stipulated by the concerned government. We encourage you to visit the official tourism website to keep abreast of the latest information about entering the country. We strongly encourage you to purchase a travel insurance package. IT for Change is not liable for any medical or hospitalization expenses for participants. Expenses for the commute to/from the airport in your country, international data/phone plans, excess baggage, and any additional room service requests for food/drinks will not be covered.
13. Will my chances of getting selected be affected if I require a travel fellowship?
A: No, selection for the institute will not be adversely affected if you seek a travel fellowship.
14. My organization is able to support my travel/I am able to fund my own travel? Will this increase my chances of being selected?
A: A positive or negative decision about selection for the institute will be solely based on the strength of the application and the fitment of the applicant. Funding (either availability or lack of) is not a factor in the evaluation process.