Digital skills and data literacy have become foundational capabilities for participation in contemporary social, economic, political, and cultural life. As digital infrastructures permeate education, work, governance, and everyday communication, the ability to access, interpret, evaluate, and create information in digital environments is increasingly tied to questions of equity, citizenship, and power. Yet access to meaningful digital learning opportunities remains uneven, shaped by structural inequalities, technological disparities, and rapidly shifting digital ecosystems.
Across the world, individuals and communities navigate complex digital landscapes marked by algorithmic decision‑making, datafication, platformisation, and new forms of surveillance and exclusion. While digital technologies promise empowerment, innovation, and expanded opportunities, they can also reproduce or intensify existing inequalities when digital skills and data literacy are unevenly distributed. Understanding these tensions is essential for imagining more just and inclusive digital futures.
Recent scholarship has examined how digital skills are taught, learned, and valued across diverse contexts – from schools and universities to workplaces, community organisations, and informal learning spaces. Research on data literacy has highlighted the need for critical engagement with how data is produced, used, and governed, as well as the ethical, political, and social implications of data‑driven systems. At the same time, governments, NGOs, and private actors promote competing models of digital capacity‑building, each carrying assumptions about agency, citizenship, and the role of technology in society.
Digital skills and data literacy are not merely technical competencies; they are deeply social and political practices. Decisions about curriculum, access, infrastructure, and governance reflect broader values about participation, autonomy, and justice. Efforts to expand digital literacy can empower individuals and communities, but they can also reinforce dependency or exclusion when implemented without attention to local contexts, cultural knowledge, or structural barriers.
This Collection invites critical, interdisciplinary contributions that examine the politics, practices, and possibilities of digital skills and data literacy. We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological work from education studies, sociology, information science, media studies, political science, development studies, human‑computer interaction, digital humanities, and related fields. By bringing diverse perspectives together, the Collection aims to interrogate dominant narratives, amplify marginalised voices, and explore transformative approaches to digital inclusion and data justice.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Digital inclusion, equity, and access across educational, social, and economic contexts
- Critical data literacy and public understanding of datafication, algorithms, and AI
- Digital skills development in schools, higher education, and vocational training
- Community‑based, indigenous, or informal digital learning practices
- The role of governments, NGOs, and private actors in shaping digital literacy agendas
- Digital literacy in contexts of migration, displacement, and humanitarian response
- Intersectional barriers to digital participation (e.g., gender, disability, class, language)
- Curriculum design, pedagogical models, and assessment of digital competencies
- Ethical, political, and social implications of data governance and digital surveillance
- Youth agency, creativity, and resistance in digital environments
- Workplace digital skills, automation, and changing labour markets
- Comparative and historical perspectives on digital literacy initiatives
- The impact of AI, automation, and emerging technologies on digital skills needs
- Digital literacy for civic engagement, democratic participation, and media resilience
- Futures of digital learning and data literacy in an increasingly data‑driven world
We particularly encourage submissions that foreground lived experiences, challenge dominant policy frameworks, or propose innovative pathways toward inclusive, equitable, and socially just digital futures.
