This project is looking to conceptualise and interrogate instances of digital prioritarianism. Prioritarianism proposes that gains in well-being are more valuable, the worse off the person would otherwise be (Arneson, 2022), so it emphasises giving priority to the needs of the socially worst off (Winters et al., 2020). The converse of that is utilitarianism, which contends that the greatest good for the greatest number of people is the goal of any initiative or distribution of a limited resource. Most national systems of education, efforts at civic or digital inclusion, or indeed any sort of distributed societal good or service, are utilitarian in nature.
This project will explore digital initiatives designed as prioritarian endeavours, deliberately targeting a specific (and singular) kind of marginalisation. The aims of this project are intended to help understand a: what motivated the creation of the initiative in the first instance b: how these initiatives were designed, developed, and sustained and c: what those working on and with these initiatives think the future will hold for their initiative and the marginalisation that it was originally designed to address.
The overriding research question is as follows: how are digital initiatives explicitly aimed at alleviating marginalisation (which we are positioning as prioritarian initiatives) conceived, designed, and executed compared to digital initiatives with utilitarian objectives (not explicitly targeting marginalisation but with some potential benefits for marginalised groups)?
