In March, the University of Glasgow hosted the first knowledge exchange meetings of the SFC - GCRF funded CR&DALL project Workers by Self-Design: Digital Literacies and Women’s Changing Roles in Unstable Environments.

The meetings were held at the St Andrew’s Building and were organised and led by Dr. Lavinia Hirsu from the School of Education, with the help of Dr. Katarzyna Borkowska, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Prof. Matthew Chalmers, School of Computing Science, and Elizabeth Nelson, School of Education. The School of Education hosted international partners from academic and non-academic institutions from Iran and the Philippines including Prof. Zenaida Q. Reyes, Philippine Normal University; Asst. Prof. Juvy Lizette Gervacio, Open University, University of the Philippines; Atty. Marion Ivy Decena, Department of Science and Technology, Philippines; Lamiah Hashemi, University of Kurdistan, Technology Incubation Centre, and Dr. Jennifer Rode, Knowledge Lab at University College London.

The meetings aimed to launch the network while exploring new partnerships and research directions. The purpose of the team meetings was for the partners to come together and discuss their contexts and to shape the project: co-authoring the project’s aims, targets and intended outcomes. The first discussions among colleagues from the three partner-countries allowed participants to become aware of the steps made forward in each context regarding women’s journeys into the workplace. The meetings in Glasgow occasioned the identification of a series of challenges that women are currently facing and trying to address in their own contexts. The project looks at investigating women’s trajectories at various levels of education and with different levels of literacy (both digital and non-digital), over a number of geographies (urban, big cities to rural remote islands and mountainous regions), and various access to digital infrastructures and platforms (from Instagram entrepreneurs to cell phone coverage and mobile marketing).

A public event hosted on March 12th, 2019 aimed to raise awareness of this emergent network among peer-researchers across disciplines, NGOs involved in women’s transition into the workforce, as well as other potential partners who may consider joining the network’s upcoming activities. These meetings will be followed by a second mobility in Manila at the end of May, 2019 which will include team discussions and planning, as well as a public event meant to engage with local potential partners and stakeholders.

More information about the project, as well as a more detailed report of the first network meetings, can be found at https://workersbyselfdesign.wordpress.com/