Digital civics

Digital civics refers a range of ethical and responsible civic behaviours, citizenship, or democratic engagement in the digital realm. The term itself is still establishing currency.

Context

Digital civics has arisen from concerns regarding the challenges faced by individuals and society in the digital age. As science and technology have advanced, so too has human understanding of their place in the world. This has altered the way people interact with one another and the broader context in which they exist. Digital civics respond to these challenges by formulating a robust foundation upon which initiatives into digital citizenship and digital citizen engagement can be developed.

Definitions

Researcher Estelle Clements defines digital civics as “the study of the rights and responsibilities of citizens who inhabit the infosphere and access the world digitally.”[1] Clements, who was a doctoral researcher at the Dublin Institute of Technology at the time, first put forward this definition in 2010 as part of an educational project done in conjunction with the Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive. The goal of their project was to teach about life in the online world.

According to Clements this definition meets three objectives:[2]

  1. It promotes an understanding of the environment where civic actions take place;
  2. It acknowledges the information philosophy that underpins this environment;
  3. It endorses the policy discourse that addresses the basic rights and ethical responsibilities of citizens.

Other conceptions of digital civics are still emerging. Newcastle University has suggested that Digital Civics is about “Digital technologies and citizen-driven design”.[3]

Philosophy of information

Numerous scholars have suggested that the Philosophy of Information is the most logical course to underpin policy and project work for life in the digital age.[4][5] The Information Philosopher Luciano Floridi has played a critical role in the success of such work, particularly in exploration of Information Society, European Policy, and European Commission’s Onlife initiative.[6]

Features

Clements identifies four underlying pillars that contribute to a robust digital civics as well as four key concepts in which digital civics is grounded.[1][2]

Underlying pillars of Digital Civics

Philosophy (specifically the Philosophy of Information as described by Luciano Floridi[7])

History (drawing from Media Ecology and Classical scholarship),

Ethics (particularly Virtue Ethics)

Civics (including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as a conjoining of the public and private personas called Hybrid selves[8]).

Key concepts for Digital Civics

- It acknowledges the transformations in human life and our world brought about by new scientific breakthroughs and technological developments, and the impact these changes have on how we behave.

- It recognises the importance of responding to these changes in ethical and intellectually rigorous ways.

- And it appreciates that we have a long historical tradition from which to draw when addressing these challenges.

- Fundamental to Digital Civics is an appreciation of the informational nature of reality.

Contention of digital civics and virtue ethics

In considering the ethical issues that arise from digital age civic issues, numerous scholars have suggested that such ethical initiatives should use virtue ethics as a basis for a shared global information ethics: namely, Charles Ess,[9][8] Shannon Vallor,[10] and Richard Volkman[11] (2010). In her doctoral work on digital civics pedagogy, Clements suggests that her findings were compatible with a framework of virtue ethics.[1] However, the Information philosopher Luciano Floridi asserts that a global information ethics cannot be built upon virtue ethics because virtue ethics is “intrinsically egopoeitic”[12] and thus does not take into account responsibilities owed to the surrounding community or environment.[13] To date, this matter is still contested.

Educational programs

In 2010, the first pedagogical program for digital civics was started by the Oscar Wilde Facebook Laboratory. It was a collaboration between Dublin City Public Libraries and Archive and the Dublin Institute of Technology's, Estelle Clements. A global team of researchers and educators created a multi-platform (online and offline) learning environment to teach students and the public about digital civics. The project formed the basis of Clements’ doctoral work which formulated a Model for Digital Civics in Pedagogy. At the time, Clements was particularly concerned that new digital citizenship initiatives were not considering the necessary underlying philosophical and ethical issues raised by the digital age and sought to provide a robust foundation to solve this problem.[1]

In 2014 Newcastle University, launched a program to teach digital civics to postgraduate students at their Open Lab . The program research concentrates on “exploring how digital technologies can empower citizens and communities”[14] and “trains doctoral students in the design, deployment and evaluation of community-driven digital technologies and services.”[15]

In 2018, [[The MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP) released a digital civics toolkit described as: “a collection of resources for educators to support youth to explore, recognize, and take seriously the civic potentials of digital life.”[16] The toolkit draws heavily from digital media literacy, focusing on 5 modules: Exploring Community Issues, Investigation, Dialogue, Voice, and Action”.[16]

Further reading

Clements, E. (2017). Digital Civics in Pedagogy: A response to the challenges of digital convergence in the educational environment (unpublished doctoral thesis). Dublin Institute of Technology.

Floridi, L. (2014). The Fourth Revolution: How the infosphere is reshaping human reality. Oxford University Press.

Floridi, L. (2013). The Ethics of Information. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Floridi, L. (2007). A look into the future impact of ICT on our lives. The Information Society, (23)1, 59-64.

Ess, C. (2010). The Embodied Self in a Digital Age: Possibilities, Risks, and Prospects for a Pluralistic (democratic/liberal) Future? Nordicom Information, 32(2).

Ulansey, D. (2000). Culture Transition and Spiritual Transformation: From Alexander the Great to Cyberspace. In Singer, T. (ed.) The Vision Thing: Myth, Politics, and Psyche in the World. London & New York, Routledge, 213-31.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Estelle, Clements, (2017). "Digital Civics in Pedagogy: A Response to the Challenges of Digital Convergence in the Educational Environment". ARROW@DIT. doi:10.21427/D7J45F.
  2. 1 2 "What is Digital Civics". digitalcivics.org. 2018.
  3. ↑ "About". digitalcivics.io. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  4. ↑ Ess, Charles (2009). Digital Media Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  5. ↑ Floridi, Luciano (2009). "The Information Society and its Philosophy". The Information Society. 25(3): 153–158.
  6. ↑ The Onlife Manifesto - Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era | Luciano Floridi. Springer.
  7. ↑ Luciano, Floridi (2002). "What is the philosophy of information". Metaphilosophy. 33.
  8. 1 2 Ess, Charles (2010). "The Embodied Self in a Digital Age: Possibilities, Risks, and Prospects for a Pluralistic (democratic/liberal) Future?". Nordicom Information. 32(2).
  9. ↑ Charles, Ess (2010). "Trust and New Communications Technologies: Vicious Circles, Virtuous Circles, Possible Futures". Knowledge, Technology & Policy. 23(3-4): 287–305.
  10. ↑ Vallor, Shannon (2016). Technology and the Virtues: A philosophical guide to a future worth wanting. Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Volkman, Richard (2010). "Why Information Ethics must begin with Virtue Ethics". Metaphilosophy. 41: 380–401.
  12. ↑ Floridi, Luciano (2013). The Ethics of Information. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 164.
  13. ↑ Floridi, Luciano (2010). The Cambridge handbook of information and computer ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 15.
  14. ↑ "Digital Civics at Open Lab". digitalcivics.io. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  15. ↑ "Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Civics". digitalcivics.io. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  16. 1 2 "Digital Civics Toolkit".

Digital Civics hosted by Estelle Clements www.digitalcivics.org

European Commission. The Onlife Initiative: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/onlife-initiative

Luciano Floridi’s Website: http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/

MacArthur Foundation Digital Civics Toolkit: https://www.digitalcivicstoolkit.org/

Newcastle University Open Lab Program on Digital Civics

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