Feminist Internet

Gender Digital Divide

This research explores the potential of supplementary models for providing last-mile connectivity to underserved communities of women and gender-minoritized persons, such as Community Networks, Public WiFi and TV White Spaces.

I carried out this research with the Internet Governance Forum of the United Nations. Its outcomes were produced through a reflection of an open, iterative, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder, and community-driven process in which people from diverse regions and stakeholder groups participated through various means.

Select work based on this project:

Radhakrishnan, Radhika. (2018). Impact of Supplementary Models of Connectivity in Enabling Meaningful Internet Access for Women and Gender Non-Binary Persons.Internet Governance Forum, United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Panel chair: “Gender & Internet Governance”, 13th United Nations Internet Governance Forum, UNESCO, Paris, 2018.

Feminist Internet

My work in this domain aims to understand the Internet in the context of some of the major current debates in the social sciences; globalization, democratization, divides in access to information etc. It provides an overview of the major findings from research on the social implications of the Internet, from a feminist framework, and at each point, relates these findings to similar debates in ‘offline’ spaces.

I designed an academic curriculum based on this work during my Master's programme in Women's Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Science, Mumbai, India. It was later published by the global initiative Feminist Principles of the Internet.

Select work based on this project:

Academic curriculum: “Towards a Feminist Internet and its Governance in India and Beyond”

I also host the Cyber Democracy podcast which focuses on understanding how technology is a site for gendered politics in India. Through conversations with female and trans-queer grassroots practitioners and academic scholars, the podcast will discuss how our gender and intersectional identities shape our experiences of and engagements with technologies and the Internet.

This podcast series is hosted in association with Suno India. To listen to the podcasts in this series, go here.