From digital inclusion to IT appropriation: gendered aspects of appropriation imaginary and practices

Abstract

The gender digital divide is a well-known research and policy topic. Policy discourses emphasise the inclusion aspect focusing on equal opportunities and economic empowerment. Critical analyses of the inclusion narrative stress its universalist and normative perspective which implicitly excludes and determines what gender technology inclusion means. This contribution focuses on an alternative perspective developed in Latin America: appropriation of technologies. This approach foregrounds the socio-cultural and economic inequalities present in the Global South. Based on a case study of a transfeminist IT community from Argentina, this paper analyses the transformative aspects of this collective’s imaginary and practices. It argues that this approach is relevant to other Global South contexts where similar communities exist and provides us with a better understanding of possibilities and limits of inclusion in the digital technologies sector.