Short Abstract

This panel explores how digital rights, governance, and emerging technologies shape development futures in the Global South. It examines power, agency, and justice in digital transformation, bridging academic and practitioner perspectives to reimagine development pathways.

Description

This panel examines the intersections of digital rights, governance, and sustainable development in the Global South, directly engaging with the DSA2026 theme of reimagining development, power, agency, and futures. While digital transformation promises inclusion, innovation, and new forms of citizen participation, it also poses risks of surveillance, exclusion, and inequality.

We invite papers and reflections that critically engage with how legal, policy, and governance frameworks can ensure more equitable and just digital futures. Contributions may address constitutional protection of digital rights, data governance, algorithmic decision-making, AI applications in healthcare or education, or the decolonisation of digital governance.

The panel seeks to foster dialogue between academics and practitioners, bridging theory and practice. It will combine paper presentations with interactive discussion, encouraging participants to share insights on policy design, institutional reform, and bottom-up initiatives.

By centring Global South perspectives, this panel highlights how power and agency are negotiated in digital spaces and how development futures can be reimagined beyond Eurocentric models. Convenors will also explore a post-conference publication to extend these debates and build new research-policy networks.

This Panel has 5 pending paper proposals.
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