Presentation short abstract

We present interim results for the development of a relational database that integrates theory, observation, and expert knowledge to encompass digitalization typologies that challenge linear digital frameworks, enabling analyses across grassroots transformation pathways, contexts, and practices.

Presentation long abstract

Grassroots transformative initiatives (GTIs) working toward environmental justice and biocultural diversity are believed to be increasingly operating through digital infrastructures, yet their digital practices remain poorly documented.

This paper will present the interim outcomes of a methodology, within the framework of the DIVERSE project, for constructing analytical typologies that integrate initiative identity, transformation pathways, spatial traits, and digitalization patterns within a coherent relational database architecture. Moving beyond categorical frameworks that position GTIs as passive technology adopters along a linear digital divide, our approach recognizes digital practices as relationally co-constituted with transformation goals, spatial infrastructures, and organizational capacities.

Our methodology combines systematic literature review with empirical analysis of GTI websites, iteratively refined through structured team consultation. We expect that this process will help document the tension between standardization (enabling comparison) and contextual specificity (capturing situated experience). The tentative database architecture, which will still undergo rounds of participatory development and updating, will make visible the trade-offs, enablers, and barriers that GTIs navigate in their digital praxis, while accommodating multiple data sources - from secondary documentation to primary interviews.

We argue that database design is not merely technical infrastructure but encodes ontological commitments about how transformation happens. By treating digitalization as interwoven with identity, spatiality, and justice rather than as a separate sphere, our relational approach challenges digital divide narratives and creates analytical infrastructure for cumulative knowledge-building across diverse grassroots contexts, supporting both comparative scholarship and movement-led learning.