Vulnerable Communities and Local Knowledge
Date and time: 25 March 2021, 12 pm – 1 pm
Speaker: Pedro Ferreira, IT University in Copenhagen
Title: Vulnerable Communities and Local Knowledge
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/64417677978?pwd=RzlDZ3lBMzAwKzFnL2tyWTh4MzBZQT09
Meeting ID: 644 1767 7978
Password: DF2020
Watch the recorded presentation:
Abstract: When dealing with technological interventions with vulnerable communities, there are well-founded concerns with top-down approaches, such as issues of epistemic legitimacy. Within Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD), researchers are typically careful to frame their work as engaging on participants’. While intended to promote an improved epistemic practice – one that is locally produced, relevant and appropriate – it raises questions around the framing and accountability of both the participant and the researcher in the process.
Pedro will draw on a mixed-methods analysis of the use of the term ‘local’ within ICTD literature. The talk will focus on the logic of engagement that the term suggests, the different forms of epistemic accountability, and the broader implications for how we engage with communities we perceive as vulnerable.
Bio: Pedro Ferreira is an Associate Professor at the IT University in Copenhagen. He has a PhD from KTH where he studied the uneasy place of leisure within Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICTD). His research draws on understanding the role of digital technologies and infrastructures in everyday life with a focus on participation and user configuration.