Digital-ID in Africa
call for expressions of interest
24th April 2024
New research project:
Digital-ID in Africa: identity, power and interests
This project will map current developments in Digital-ID across the continent as biometric identity systems are rolled out, linked to citizens' banking and mobile phone accounts, and becomes a precondition of access to services & entitlements.
The first phase of the research will be a report that documents the drivers, dimensions, dynamics and directions of Digital-ID in ten Africa countries including examples from all of the continent's main regions and language groups. The research will document the impact of new identification and verification technologies on citizens' digital rights.
The second phase of the research will build on the work of phase one studies by producing a collected edition book featuring in-depth critical analysis by ten African scholars on the Digital-ID systems emerging in ten Africa countries, and will provide ten in-depth case studies to expand knowledge and theory in this space.
The book will be edited by 'Gbenga Sesan and Dr. Tony Roberts and will be the sixth title in the ADRN series of 'Digital Africa' books published by Zed Books.
Call for abstracts:
We invite expressions of interest from researchers interested in contributing to the project in the form of 300 word abstracts stating the proposed country, issue, and conceptual focus. The deadline for submissions is 14th June 2024. Please note that although we will iniciate discussion with potential authors in July 2024 to help us refine the research design and book proposal, it is not expected that writing will begin in earnest until January 2025.
Please include with your expression of interest, a short CV, that includes links to your previous publications in this area. We welcome submissions from activists and practitioners and from emerging and established scholars. We are keen to include case studies from activists and researchers writing about countries that are under-represented in the anglophone literature.
Possible topics for the volume include, but are not limited to:
- The role of digital-ID in expanding legal identity and access to rights and entitlements
- Digital-ID and digital government services
- The role of the prviate sector in biometrics and digital-ID
- Power analysis of the range of interests driving digital-ID
- Participatory / ethographic research with citizens' included or excluded by biometric Digital-ID
- Intersectional analysis of 'who benefits'?
- How to expand citizen influence in Digital-ID agendas in ways that expand rights, freeoms and entitlements
Please submit your expression of interest to t.roberts@ids.ac.uk by email in Word format including “Digital-ID in Africa" in the subject line.
ADRN will be at this year's #DRIF24 Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum
in Accra from April 23-25th
25th March 2024
DRIF24 is one of the largest pan-African digital rights fora bringing together activists, civil society organisations, academia, tech companies & govt. It is organised and hosted annually by ADRN's, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria,
This year DRIF24 is being held in Accra from 23rd- to 25th April at the Alisa Hotel with the theme 'Fostering Rights and Inclusion in the Digital Age'.
Many ADRN members will be at #DRIF24 and we will be organising three events:
- Panel presenting ADRN research on Workers' Perspectives on the Digitalisation of Social Protection
- Book Launch: "Digital Disinformation in Africa: hashtag politics, power, and propaganda" plus new book announcement
- ADRN Annual General Meeting: this will be a hybrid event in person in Accra and online at 14:00 on the 24th
Closed
Call for Chapter Abstracts extended to 31st August 2023
25th July 2023
New book: Feminist Digital Citizenship in Africa
Feminist Digital Citizenship in Africa: transformative online feminism. Edited by Dr. Tanja Bosch and Dr. Tony Roberts.
A collected edition for Zed Books for publication in 2024.
Call for abstracts:
We invite abstract submissions for chapters to be included in a collected edition book on digital feminist citizenship in Africa towards a book proposal for submission to Zed Books.
In recent years, we have seen a renewal in feminist politics “that emerge from the interface of digital platforms and activism today” (Baer, 2016). Women increasingly use participatory digital media to network and organize in various ways, including against sexism and rape culture (Mendes et al., 2019). Digital feminist protest culture has facilitated the emergence of digital feminist citizenship, whereby women use digital technologies to claim their rights as citizens and challenge structures that limit their participation in the public sphere.
Feminists have, however argued that the discourses and practices of citizenship “are deeply gendered and racialized”; as well as “deeply ambiguous and exclusionary” (Ackelsberg, 2009, 119-120), as it has generally been accepted that citizenship occurs in the public domain, thus excluding private or domestic activities and those located in those areas, e.g., women. Moreover, feminist scholars have highlighted the failure of citizenship rights vested in liberal democracies to meet the needs of women and other minority groups, including those who are socially or economically marginalised (Lister, 1997).
We invited you to submit a 200-word abstract by 31st August 2023. Please include a short CV, including a bibliography, along with your submission. We welcome submissions from activists and practitioners as well as emerging and established scholars.
We encourage case studies located in various parts of the continent, empirical work, as well as theoretical reflections, which contribute toward an exploration of contemporary feminist protest and digital feminisms.
Possible topics for the volume include, but are not limited to:
- The role of digital technologies in shaping feminist citizenship in Africa
- Algorithmic culture and online identity
- Case studies of digital feminist campaigns/online activism
- Other manifestations of digital feminist citizenship
- The interplay between offline and online feminist citizenship practices
- Transformational feminist digital citizenship
Sbmit your abstract to Tanja.Bosch@uct.ac.za and T.Roberts@ids.ac.uk with “Digital Feminist Citizenship” in the subject line. If our proposal is accepted, we will ask for an extended abstract of 1500 words by mid-September and a first draft of 2500-3000 words by the end of November. Full final papers of 6,000 – 7,000 words will be due in Jan-Feb 2024.
This volume is expected to make an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship on digital citizenship and digital activism in Africa, and we look forward to receiving your submissions.citizens
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