Call for Book Chapters: Digital Literacy & Meaningful Connectivity

Does your work involve digital literacy and/or digital inclusion? Please consider contributing to the forthcoming multidisciplinary book Digital Literacy – A Human-Centric Approach to Meaningful Connectivity edited by Danica Radovanović, and published by Springer. Please see the details below.  

What we have learned in the past decade of our digital lives? In the past 5 years? In the past 15 months? Where we’re going? Where shall we begin?

These are some of the questions I am asking myself, as an internet researcher and practitioner, lately, and this is an invitation to the researchers and experts from various stakeholder groups to contribute to various aspects and dynamics of digital literacy related to digital inclusion, both in the Global South and Global North. The digital divide, even more, prominent in the Global South, is also visible in the Global North.

We have seen this in the past year and a half, how much and to what extend we lack in digital skills; that those without the access and skills got more left behind and disconnected, and us – on Global North, how we had to learn and relearn new pathways and skills to join the digital highway. Many of you, even though academics in social and internet technologies had to reach and ask your junior colleague or a child to help you to set up the technology, install zoom, other apps, how to record a video, how to create and share the content with a larger group of people, use the cloud, change the privacy settings, change the background or learn how to press unmute.

Undoubtedly, digital literacy presents the relevant factor for digital inclusion and sustainable development. This book seeks to provide insight and analysis of sustainable digital literacy models for obtaining digital skills in the digital era. We’ll have a look into successful initiatives with various dynamics and structures of the models that enable the provisioning of digital literacy efficiently and sustainably. What constitutes digital literacy in this new digital landscape? What is needed to bridge the digital divide in skills in Global South, and what in Global North? What is dominant in the North?

We seek to redefine digital literacy for the 21^st century and analyze case studies targeted at under-connected people in the Global South and North that use digital literacy programs to build knowledge, improve education, health literacy, financial literacy, solve societal problems, and foster development.

The book welcomes contributions that stem from different disciplines and methodologies, by established and new scholars in the field that critically examine the current state of digital literacy and digital skills related to the digital transformation and digital inclusion processes that we are experiencing.  We welcome chapters from diverse fields, including social science, computer science, and engineering studies, communication, anthropology, journalism, political theory, critical theory, business, etc.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Digital Literacy in 21^st century: Processes and practices in Global South and Global North
• Practical implications and solutions to the digital divide related to digital literacy.
• Digital Skills in Education and eLearning: the promise of online learning
• Digital Literacy current frameworks. KPIs and solutions for scalability and sustainability
• Digital skills and vulnerable groups: children, youth, elders, marginalized groups in the society
• Digital literacy initiatives for reducing Gender inequality, best praxis
• Digital health literacy, digital financial literacy, business models
• Network privacy skills, algorithmic digital skills, data digital literacy, digital social security, IoT, AI – (re) learning new skills
• Digital Literacy and sustainable futures: innovative cross-sector partnerships, recommendations for future digital literacy initiatives and programs

Abstract submissions for the book chapter proposals are due September 27^th, 2021, and please send a title, abstract (250 words max), and a short bio to danica@basicinternet.org to help us streamline the peer review process.

The answers to the most frequently asked questions:

• The book is a monograph published by Springer
• The target chapter length is 5000-6000 words, including references.
• There is no limit to the number of authors in a chapter.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch should you have any queries.