The second episode of the new season of the Routing for Communities podcast invites us to join in an audio journey exploring fundamental questions in the field of community networks, seen from the perspectives of women from different countries who play various roles – from hands-on technical work to national and international advocacy for better policies and regulation.
While women continue to make essential contributions to the development of community-centred connectivity initiatives worldwide, they still face challenges that echo structural power imbalances and historical inequalities. Digital technologies and decision-making processes are typically designed by men, without a gender-responsive lens. As an extension of the society in which they are embedded, these processes often reflect the normalisation of centuries of structural exclusion and violence. And they are always related to factors such as gender, race, class and nationality.
Voices of change and transformation
The voices of women offer important reflections on the barriers they face – but also highlight how they overcome them. As protagonists in this field, they offer a deep knowledge of the achievements and challenges faced by community networks in different contexts.
Listen to stories of six initiatives developed in six countries, presented by the leading women who share their experiences. You can also revisit podcasts from season one, to find out more. These experiences are Casa dos Meninos from Brazil, Wiki Katat from Mexico, Tunapanda Net from Kenya, Quintana Libre from Argentina, TakNet from Thailand and the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) from Nigeria.
In season one of our podcast, you listened to stories about those who create innovative, community-led projects that connect the third of the world that still lives offline. Throughout the 12 episodes, we talked to more than 20 people from 15 countries. The topic provided us with a lot of content, so we decided to extend the conversation into one more season for you. Listen to all 12 episodes from season one at routingforcommunities.apc.org. You can also listen to them on Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify.
Listen to season two:
Episode 1:
In this first episode, the topic is community-centred connectivity as a strategy that communities have developed for bridging the digital divide. Listen now.
Episode 2:
This episode explores fundamental questions in the field of community networks, seen through the perspectives of women from a range of countries who play various roles – from hands-on technical work to national and international advocacy for better policies and regulation.
Episode 3:
What are the social values of community-centred connectivity initiatives that set them apart from traditional stakeholders in the ecosystem? In this episode, we reflect on some of these principles in practice. Available on 1 July.
Episode 4:
What is needed for this movement to become even stronger? That’s what we talk about in this episode: financing, regulation and public policies in support of community-centred connectivity initiatives. Available on 5 August.
This podcast is an initiative from the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Rhizomatica, produced by Rádio Tertúlia. Its production is part of the “Meaningful community-centred connectivity” project being implemented by the Local Networks initiative (LocNet), with financial support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the UK Government’s Digital Access Programme. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of our supporters.