Seeking Abundance: What Is Life Affirming Community Tech
Original image source: Design For Seeking Abundance by Roseanna Dias
Recommended tracks to play while you read:
🎵 Osundu by The Cavemen
🎵 The Sister by Nitin Sawhney
🎵 Morning Prayer by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
🎵 Soso by Omah Lay
Co-creating a conversation
When I joined Promising Trouble as the Inclusion Research Producer in April 2023, I wanted to connect with other Global Majority folk (or Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) in the Community Tech sector. I was keen to get a sense of what it was like to navigate the sector as a person of colour (PoC) and as someone interested in justice, equity and changemaking.
What were some of the experiences that people were having? What were people’s dreams and desires? What was already happening, and what else could happen with more collaboration and support? Informal chats revealed a common yearning for a space for Global Majority practitioners to come together and reflect on the state of the sector, build relationships and share our practices.
So, in November 2023, we brought together a roundtable of Tech Justice practitioners to explore and understand what life affirming community tech means to us, and how we can nurture it. This work builds on and takes inspiration from others in the field, in particular Tech Justice research led by Siana Bangura and team for Catalyst, and the pioneering work in Life Affirming Infrastructures led by Healing Justice London.
Rather than positioning Promising Trouble as experts, our roundtable was a collective forum in which to explore themes (drawn from these initial dialogues) with a critical eye, with the view to expanding and continuing this conversation in the future.
Roundtable participants included:
Convened and hosted by: Roseanna Dias, Promising Trouble
This blog post is part of a five part series where I’ll share insights from our roundtable conversations. It is by no means a full account and I’ve practised what disability arts practitioner Raquel Meseguer-Zafe (Uncharted Collective) calls ‘honouring through editing’. This blog series will follow the four themes we covered during the event: Decolonising vs Life Affirming Community Tech; Collective Dreams for Community Tech; Exploring Realities and Options; and What Does Being Resourced Look and Feel Like?; before offering some Key Takeaways.
Original image source: Screenshot of Participants from Roundtable Discussion by Roseanna Dias for Promising Trouble
Decolonising vs Life Affirming Community Tech
“Language as culture is the collective memory bank of a people's experience in history.”
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, introduced via Debs Durojaiye
For us at Promising Trouble Community Tech is technology built with, by and for communities, that is locally accountable and creates local value. Initially we had called people together at the roundtable under the banner of ‘decolonising’ community tech. Through a collective scene setting and grounding process, we broadly defined ‘decolonisation’ as the deconstruction of colonial ideologies, systems and practices to address the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism, imperialism, White supremacy, and Eurocentrism on societies. Our understanding encompassed challenging, dismantling, and replacing harmful structures, rectifying historical injustices, and re-centering Global Majority folks, as well as respecting and incorporating local and Indigenous knowledge in our work.
We noted how decolonisation is not merely a metaphor but a tangible and live process - one that is being exemplified in real-time through global struggles such as in Palestine. We also highlighted how decolonial work begins with decolonising our mentality, fostering an open-minded, inclusive approach to explore new, ancient, and emerging ways of doing things - and how challenging in reality this can be.
We also talked about how ‘decolonising’ as an ideology and practice can be misappropriated in academic and institutional spaces, causing further harm to those it is supposed to support. As a group, we recognised how the term 'decolonising' could also alienate people, falling short of the inclusive discussions we want to have. 'Re-indiginisation' emerged as a powerful alternative suggestion, offering a means to reclaim agency positively and redefine our narrative, ‘to take the coloniser out of our mouths’ and re-centre the colonised. Additionally, the concept of 'coloniality' was valued for acknowledging that colonialism persists through ongoing beliefs and practices rooted in colonial legacies, challenging the notion of colonialism’s true end and emphasising the ongoing need to address its impacts.
This reflective journey highlighted the importance of fostering an inclusive vocabulary and intersectional framing that honours diverse identities and experiences. These thoughtful reflections led to the proposal that we explore community tech through a lens aligned less with what we’re fighting against (and what we lack), and more with what we’re fighting for (and what we have or are seeking): namely abundance, regeneration, liberation.
“Something that stood out to me [in the workshop] was what somebody summed up really well by saying ‘community tech as a means to an end, rather than the end itself’. I think that is reflected very well in many of the things that people wrote down, like looking for abundance and health and wellbeing.
I find that often, when we're talking about these things, it's very difficult to talk about tech. Tech becomes a kind of isolated thing, without talking about the structures of the world that prevent us from having abundance and thriving in life. So I really appreciated that this was the theme (that thriving was the thing, was the goal, not the tech) that was coming out for many people”
Dominique Barron
The next blog post will build on this shift in focus towards seeking abundance, seeking liberatory structures and processes, in the work of community tech. Stay tuned for writings exploring what our collective dream is for Life Affirming Community Tech, including a part blueprint, part manifesto we want to offer to you.
Original image source: Design For Seeking Abundance by Roseanna Dias
Over To You
Whilst this conversation started within a circle of Global Majority folks, it is not contained there - it highlights the ways in which all of us might engage with issues of harm and oppression, and also opportunities and potentials for collective change.
This is a shared, sector wide endeavour. Whether you are a community tech practitioner or potential partner or funder, this is an invitation for you to take a few moments to do your own reflections and take action.
Why not start with this prompt? Freewrite, mind map or discuss…
Ground Yourself: What does decolonising / life affirming community tech mean to you, in theory and in practice?
This prompt forms part of a six step framework for reflection on the topic of life affirming community tech. We will be sharing prompts as we publish each blog post in this series.
We also acknowledge the labour involved in reading this if you are a racialised individual. You can find after care resources by following these links for meditation, ways to rest, and inspirational readings.
What’s Next?
This is the start of a conversation and the first instalment of the Seeking Abundance blog series by Promising Trouble - a deep dive into how community tech can help dismantle oppressions and support us all to thrive. Over the course of 2024 we hope to work with others and continue the discussion. Stay tuned on our socials X / LinkedIn where we’ll be posting one Seeking Abundance blog post every week for five weeks, starting with 14th Feb.
Glossary of Terms
Coloniality - the set of attitudes, values, ways of knowing, and power structures upheld as normative by Western colonising societies and serving to rationalise and perpetuate Western dominance.
Decolonising - we defined it as the deconstruction of colonial ideologies, practices and systems to address the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism, imperialism, White supremacy, and Eurocentrism on societies. Our understanding encompassed challenging, dismantling, and replacing harmful structures, rectifying historical injustices, and re-centering Global Majority folks.
Global Majority refers to the demographic majority worldwide of Black peoples, Indigenous peoples, and Peoples of Colour. It helps to highlight the perspectives and experiences of the majority in a world shaped by White supremacy.
Tech / Digital Inclusion - refers to equitable, meaningful, and safe access to use, lead, and design of digital technologies, services, and associated opportunities for everyone, everywhere.
Tech Justice - 'Tech Justice is where technology is deployed in anti-oppressive ways. That can mean that technology isn't used against particular communities, or it's not used to make decisions that impact people disproportionately’ as defined by Siana Bangura and team in their Tech Justice research project.
