by Yesim Kakalic and Jamie Hancock INCLUDE+ has been mapping the landscape of research on the intersections between precarity, technology, data, and AI (Artificial Intelligence). Precarity has become a pressing concern amid the accelerating integration of technology, data, and AI in various domains of society. Debates about the interplay between technology and aspects of everyday … Read more
INCLUDE+ network explores how social and digital environments can be built, shaped and sustained to enable all people to thrive. But what does it mean to ‘thrive’ in this context?
Over the past 6 months, we have been exploring the idea of ‘thriving’ through conversations with Prof. Caroline Bassett and Dr. Edgar Gómez Cruz at the Data School, Cambridge University; through our digital equity and inclusion workshops with Thrive by Design, and through related community work with Space 2 in order to think about what we mean by ‘thriving’, what properties thriving has for us, and how — ultimately — we might build for it.
Is digital equity a utopian idea? A digitally equitable world would be a place where all people can access and use digital technologies to meaningfully participate in society, democracy, and economy. Just imagine: no systemic barriers and anyone (regardless of their gender identity, race, [dis]ability, and/or social-economic status and other intersectional factors) would have the … Read more
Civic Participation is one of the key thematic areas being explored by the INCLUDE+ Network. Our 5-year programme aims to co-explore how/if meaningful civic participation can take place in digital times. To better understand the existing civic participation landscape, we decided to carry out a horizon scanning activity — a future-oriented consideration and analysis of … Read more
Truly inclusive governance requires going beyond seeking out diverse perspectives—it requires active efforts to foster an inclusive environment. An organisation’s culture needs to be reflected in its advisory board, especially as the board’s role is, in part, to hold the organisation to its values. Unfortunately, boardrooms don’t have a great track record for being inclusive. So creating an inclusive boardroom might mean we have to throw the boardroom out with the bored-water…
This month we welcome a new Research Fellow to the INCLUDE+ Management Group. Dr Alicja Pawluczuk has over a decade of experience in co-designing, facilitating, and evaluating digital inclusion, digital literacy and ICT-enabled and/or focused education programmes in the UK and internationally. She brings with her experience working on both high-level digital development programmes as well … Read more
Exploring the value of living labs as a meeting point for people and organisations, while challenging the idealisation of living labs as a neutral space.
Are living labs a useful apparatus for continuing the legacy of the INCLUDE+ network following the project’s conclusion in five years’ time? In this post, my aim is to show how a living lab’s limitations positively define the shape of its impact—if a living lab can be anything, how can you be sure your living lab becomes something?
In this blog post, I’ll share how you can create space for meaningful conversations, learned in the context of co-creation.
Lab4Living is a living lab in Sheffield working alongside communities to develop solutions in design, healthcare and creative practices. I spent some time with Joe Langley, lead Research Fellow, and Ursula Ankeny, Design Researcher and PhD student, at the lab’s space in Sheffield city centre.
Georgia Brennan-Scott is exploring living labs methods and practices. Her research will inform the legacy of the INCLUDE+ network, hopefully culminating in a living lab of our own. Asset-based community development (ABCD) rejects a needs-oriented approach to community development i.e. assessing communities based on what they are lacking and where they are failing. ABCD calls … Read more