“In our rapidly evolving world, technology and digitalisation have become an indispensable part of our lives”. Aware of the many concerns around digitalisation in grassroots movements, members La Via Campesina disclosed a position about technology in which “members are using effective tools and techniques, but digitalisation must be used with caution because we are well aware that technology is not neutral.”
The dominant narrative of the digital divide portrays a linear and binary model: powerful, invasive technologies and marginalized communities labeled as “digitally illiterate” on the other. This workshop proposes a more nuanced reality. Globally, grassroots transformative initiatives (GTIs -community-led efforts challenging unjust systems while creating livable alternatives) are not passive subjects of digitalisation but active architects of biocultural digital strategies. These efforts involve an active co-creation of digital elements with ancestral territorial practices to create a more potent, resilient and transformative defense of life.
The resistance unfolds in an increasingly hostile context. Land and environmental defenders face escalating violence fueled by extractive industries, agribusiness, and state-backed repression.
At the heart of this struggle lies a critical tension: How can digital elements be designed to protect and strengthen the fabrics of the territories of life that sustain Biocultural Diversity?
This workshop aims to move beyond the digital/non-digital dichotomy to explore their powerful synergies. By weaving together digital tools like counter-mapping, and autonomous communication, territorial defense strategies can gain power when integrated with embodied, plural, place-based Indigenous ways of knowing like seed sovereignty and land stewardship.
Centering the voices of GTI, this workshop will co-develop a framework to understand these synergies. In line with the ERC-CoG DIVERSE project, we will bring together Indigenous practitioners, grassroots defenders, and researchers to analyse how the strategic integration of digital and place-based strategies forges a more robust biocultural defense.