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.