Digital citizenship in a global society: a feminist approach

In an era of datafication, social networking, and globalization, “digital citizenship” has become an increasingly relevant and popular concept employed by diverse societal actors to promote digital capacity, literacy, and participation. To date, however, limited scholarly attention has been paid to the role of gender power relations in digital citizenship discourses, theories, or practices. In this paper, we conceptualize digital citizenship as a status (what it means to be a citizen), a practice (what it means to act as a citizen), and an intersubjective experience (what it means to occupy the outside, inside, or liminal space of citizenship). We argue that an intersectional, multi-layered, feminist approach to digital citizenship offers a valuable way to first analyze gender subordination and exclusionary practices in digital societies, and second to guide action that promotes a feminist democratic project of transformation and empowerment.