School of Education

Workers by Self-Design: Digital Literacies and Women's Changing Roles in Unstable Environments

How do workers design their future when traditional career pathways are threatened by unstable environments? More importantly, how do women approach new literacies (be they digital and non-digital) when natural disasters and human-induced social and political instabilities threaten their work-related journeys? This project aimed to establish a growing network of academic and non-academic stakeholders who investigated the relationship between digital literacies, entrepreneurial training opportunities and women’s vulnerabilities in unstable contexts. Support for this application contributed to the organization of two professional meetings in Glasgow and Manila, with activities focused on research planning, development of new methodologies and public meetings with non-academic stakeholders. Partners from three countries (UK, Iran and the Philippines) worked on strengthening and establishing new collaborations in order to tackle the issue of women’s engagement with digital literacies and their changing roles as they transition into the workplace. The meetings aimed to develop a research agenda that will investigate both women’s vulnerabilities as well as their opportunities to build sustainable futures for themselves through the effective use of digital literacies in the context of economic and infrastructural challenges (UK), environmental disasters (the Philippines) and human-induced challenges (global political and economic sanctions on Iran).