About the Workshop
This two-day workshop, generously funded by the Research Ireland New Foundation Grant, brings together researchers, activists, and development practitioners to examine Africa’s role in the global digital value chain. It creates a space for critical dialogue on digital justice, global responsibility, and equity, with a focus on linking research, policy, and lived experience.
Why it matters
Global digital technologies, from smartphones to AI, depend heavily on African resources, labour, and environments. Yet the social, environmental, and economic costs borne by African communities remain largely invisible in policy discussions. This workshop addresses that gap by centring these overlooked realities.
Approach
The workshop is designed as an interactive, collaborative process. Day one focuses on dialogue and critical reflection, while day two shifts toward co-writing and synthesis. Participants work in facilitated groups to develop shared insights and shape a collective narrative.
Key themes
Participants will explore questions related to mineral extraction and digital supply chains, digital labour and platform economies, and e-waste and environmental justice. These themes highlight how inequality is embedded across the lifecycle of digital technologies.
Outcomes
The main outcome is a collaboratively authored position paper outlining key challenges, principles, and policy recommendations. This document will inform future research, policy engagement, and collaboration on digital justice and global equity.
Organisers
Dr Thompson Kwarkye
University of Galway
Thompson is the Principal Investigator for the AfroGAIN project investigating Africa's AI governance’s political, ethical, and sociocultural dimensions. Thompson holds a PhD in Anthropology from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, an MSc in Human Security from Aarhus University, Denmark, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Ghana. Thompson has been a postdoc at the University College Dublin and the University of Oxford, designing AI ethics and auditing courses and researching the impacts of EU regulations on the Global South, respectively.
Dr Mahya Ostovar
University of Galway
Mahya Ostovar is an assistant professor in Business Information Systems at J. E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, University of Galway, in Ireland. She holds a PhD in management information systems from ESSEC Business School in France. Her research focuses on the social impacts of digital technology, specifically on activism, online social movements, and the future of work. She looks at these topics from a practice and process perspective. Her work has appeared in leading IS journals, including MIS Quarterly and Information and Organisation.