sustain:if:able kiwi

“Grassroots digital activisms” research project July 2024 update

I leave Edinburgh tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful time, of new networks of people and a peaceful setting in which to think and research. With my 7 weeks at IASH ending, I have written up a July 2024 research project update.

“Grassroots digital activisms: learning with the visual grammar of indigenous Christian climate justice organisations” research project

Background: Digital technology is changing the world. Neumayer and Svensson (2014) have researched how individuals and organisations use online platforms to activate for change. They theorise a typology of digital activism but call for fine-grained studies from diverse contexts. There is much to learn from local communities with different epistemologies as they activate for change.

This research seeks a decolonial perspective by centring indigenous Christian organisations working on climate justice. It takes a case study approach, beginning in the world’s largest body of water, the Pacific Ocean, and seeking collaborations with other digital activist grassroots organisations in local, diverse, and indigenous contexts.

The research assumes that grassroots Christian communities are using online social media for activism. Their digital outputs, including visual images, provide insights into climate change, digital activism, and visual grammars. Learning with and from grassroots indigenous digital activism offers fresh responses to the ‘wicked problems’ facing our planet.

Research questions:
• What is the nature of online digital activism in grassroots indigenous Christian organisations?
• What might online digital activism, including its visual grammar, reveal about indigenous ways of knowing and activating?
• What learnings might result for other grassroots local activist organisations?

Approach: The project values collaborative approaches and utilises participatory methods. A case study approach centres local particularities and diverse contexts. Visual grammar methods offer frameworks for analysing the online social media images of grassroots organisations. Offering online conversations to participants in grassroots organisations about their online social media images prioritises local perspectives and creates feedback loops. Testing initial findings with local communities invites mutual learning and facilitates grassroots resourcing.

Benefits:
• Practical benefits in offering guidance for volunteer grassroots organisations seeking to activate online for climate justice
• Methodology benefits in testing collaborative and mutual research protocols for use in various indigenous grassroots contexts
• Theoretical implications in challenging Euro-centric theorisations of climate change, digital activism and visual grammar
• Relational benefits in weaving networks of scholars researching digital activism and public theology in non-Western contexts

Outputs past and planned:
Outputs 2023
• IASH funding bid, with the support of Dr Alex Chow, Centre for World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, to initiate the research

Outputs 2024
• Ethics application to the University of Edinburgh
• GoNeDigiTal24, Digital activism as justice-making academic presentation
• IASH, Visualising climate change activism academic presentation
• Funding proposal submitted seeking support for a colloquium of grassroots digital activist researchers
• British Sociology of Religion Conference 2024, Digital activism as justice-making academic presentation
• Journal article. Discussion of implications of digital activism and visual grammar methods for public theology, applied to the social media presence of two UK climate activist organisations

Outputs 2025 and beyond
• Hybrid colloquium on grassroots digital activism, drawing together research into digital activisms in grassroots contexts with the aim of networking and multi-voiced publication of research (April 2025 tbc)
• An open-access academic publication (interest already from an international academic publisher)
• A visual resource and podcast series with activists in grassroots communities about their learnings.

Principal Investigator: Rev Dr Steve Taylor, AngelWings Ltd

Funding and conversation partnerships: The Grassroots digital activism research project welcomes interest in conversations or collaborations. Current supporters include IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities), CWC (Centre for World Christianity), the University of Edinburgh, and RISC (Researching Indigenous Studies and Christianity).

For more information about the research, in the first instance, contact Rev Dr Steve Taylor on kiwidrsteve at gmail dot com.

fun day plotting the IASH Digital activism research project

It was good today to spend some time reflecting on the IASH Digital Activism as justice-making project to date.

Over the last 6 weeks in Edinburgh, I have gathered a raft of research notes. I’ve written various research memos and pieces of data analysis. Together these total around 12,000 words.

Over the last 6 weeks, I have also presented 3 academic talks. Each of these have helped to clarify data and flesh out some arguments. But they’ve also meant I’ve skipped around a bit, collecting enough data for an “initial finding” in a presentation, but not enough for an indepth written argument.

In the up-next-soon, I have one full week left in Edinburgh. It would be nice in that week to gather threads and work toward something I could publish.

In the up-next-medium term, I have some grassroots activist organisations who are keen to participate. But they have some project deadlines, so have asked if they can be researched later in the year. Totally understandable.

Then in the up-next-longer-term, I want to develop the research in ways that involve multiple voices, not just mine. To make this concrete, a few weeks ago I submitted a funding bid. This is under peer review and could make possible a multi-voiced gathering. I have also initiated contact with a publisher, who has expressed enthusiasm for the project and my hopes for a multi-voiced project.

So today was spent plotting ways that I might produce different outputs. The IASH time was always about the conceptual space to set up the ethics process and research design. It was never intended to complete the project. At the same time, I don’t want to juggle yet another unfinished project, as I already have several too many of those. Equally, having several projects on the go can help with managing timelines.

So today was about plotting. Can there be something in the short term, that is distinct, yet sets up outputs in the medium and long term? Can I match an argument I’ve verbally developed with an already gathered concrete set of data?

After several coffees, and then some thinking thoughts into (1800) draft words on a page, I can see some ways forward.

Socrel 2024 “Digital activism as justice-making” conference questions

I was pleased to present a paper on “Digital activism as justice-making” at the British Sociology Association (BSA) Sociology of Religion Annual Conference. The theme for 2024 was Religion, Justice, and Social Action which fitted really well with my IASH Fellowship. Being in Newcastle on Tyne, just down the road from Edinburgh also worked really well, providing an international conference forum without having to travel too far! it was nice not to enter the most jet-lagged conference attendee award.

This paper is the third presentation of work from my IASH Research Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. My data and methods have grown significantly since I proposed an abstract back in February. That in itself is encouraging, seeing how the project is growing and taking shape.

Participants asked a range of excellent questions. As per my standard conference talk practice of taking handwritten notes and writing them up later, here are the questions I was asked, and comments that were made:

1. 1. Are indigenous ways of knowing appearing in the data?
   2. How many of these groups (indigenous Christian climate change activist using online platforms for climate change activism) exist?
   3. How to account for the public dimensions of being online? One of the theoretical typologies that I use included the possibility of digital activity that is illegal. Would activism groups post about such activity online?
   4. Is there a possibility that indigenous approaches to climate change might be able to provide different approaches and solutions than we currently experience in Eurocentric approaches?
   5. It is fascinating how social media gives voice to communities and provides ways for researchers to listen and learn with and from them.
   6. (In the cup of tea queue the next day) – Have you had focus group participants offer different responses to your visual grammar readings?
   7. (Also in the cup of tea queue the next day) – The collective, practical, participatory ways of being that I’m noticing in my research of activist groups in the Pacific is also present in working class British activism.

As you can see, within the confines of 10 minutes for questions, some really helpful matters for me to think through. Every question and comment informs my ongoing thinking. It also provides feedback on how what I am communicating is being received across cultures.

It was great afterward to exchange contact details with researchers at Durham University, Manchester University and Hong Kong University, who are also researching climate change activism. It confirms that my research is timely, yet is also unique. A good sweet spot.