Community Technology

Community Technology is a broad term, used since the 1970s, to describe projects in which communities take action to create, use, and govern all kinds of technology to meet their needs. Over the past decade, initiatives with these aims have multiplied and are, we believe, of central importance to contemporary debates about the role of communities in digital design, digital governance, data ownership, and digital inclusion. Community Technology projects are particularly significant for those of us concerned with the increasingly intertwined relationship between society and technology, the practices that emerge from it, and the futures that are made possible by it. As a result, our research aims to address two questions: What is Community Technology? and What future-making claims are being advanced by Community Technology practitioners and organisations?