Civic dimensions of critical digital literacies: towards an abolitionist lens

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the role of digital and civic literacies in the context of resurgent right-wing ethno-nationalism and movements for the abolition of oppressive institutions worldwide. We discuss how, while digital tools have opened up lines of democratized communication and action, civic life online and offline has become both more authoritarian and more polarized. As software platforms like Facebook and Twitter now dominate everyday civic and economic life, media and civic literacy frameworks fail to address this new reality. After overviewing a framework for literacies in current digital and civic contexts, we draw on critical race science and technology studies in order to contest notions of a universal digital or civic subject, and to argue for moving beyond normative progress discourses. Instead, we offer an abolitionist imagination, arguing that classroom approaches to critical digital literacies must draw on abolitionist praxis in order to challenge ways interlocking forms of oppression affect contemporary civic life, both online and offline.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic engagement
• digital media
• literacy
• materiality
• platforms

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the editing contributions of Sasha Raj Lawrence in writing this article, and for the input of the guest editors and anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antero Garcia

Antero Garcia is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, California, USA. His research focuses on the literacies of civics, technology, and play. His recent books include Annotation (with Remi Kalir), Compose our world: Engaging educators and students with project-based learning in secondary English language arts (with Alison Boardman, Bridget Dalton, & Joseph Polman), & Good reception: Teens, teachers, and mobile media in a Los Angeles high school. He can be reached at [email protected].

Roberto Santiago de Roock

Roberto S. de Roock is an assistant professor at University of California, Santa Cruz. He undertakes ethnographic, design-based, and participatory research examining the relationships between literacy, technology, and social justice. He has published in journals including Cognition & Instruction, Language & Education, Research in Learning Technology, Linguistics & Education, and Theory into Practice. He is an Associate Editor of Pedagogies: An International Journal and co-editor of the forthcoming Critical Literacies Handbook (Routledge). He can be reached at [email protected].