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Nos quotidiens numériques

How is the widespread digitization of daily life transforming our ability to act as citizens, and what obstacles, forms of knowledge, and forms of mutual aid is it giving rise to?

Conducted in the Parisian digital solidarity spaces (ESN) run by the Emmaüs Connect association, this qualitative and participatory research aims to shed light on the practices and situations encountered by the people receiving support by documenting both the challenges they face and the skills that are often overlooked.

Research

I have two phones: one for France and one for my home country. Before coming to the permanences connectées, it seemed to me that I wasn’t receiving calls from my loved ones back home on the WhatsApp app on my French phone. I keep discovering that I actually have two WhatsApp accounts–one for back home and one for here. I’m going to lose my mind with all these multiple identities! When I leave the permanence, the mystery remains, because I’ve tried calling people using my account from back home, and they didn’t answer. One of the people I called is always busy in his orange trees—between the oranges and WhatsApp, I’m not quite sure who to blame anymore.

Anecdote reconstructed from ethnographic observations

While digitisation is now presented as an indisputable solution to the problems facing our contemporary democracies—and as it touches every aspect of our daily lives—it is important to examine its effects on our ability to act as citizens and to study the challenges, knowledge, and forms of mutual aid that such a transformation brings to light.

Everyone has something to say about digital technology: experiences, anecdotes, and practices that deserve to be shared, considered, and valued. The distinctions between “competent” and “incompetent,” “connected” and “disconnected,” “included” and “excluded” obscure the fact that we all face difficulties and barriers with digital technologies and their ubiquity, but that we also all possess personal knowledge and collective resources to draw upon to cope with them.

Whether it’s chatting with loved ones, handling administrative tasks, buying and selling online, opening an account, contacting customer service, sharing feedback, managing medical appointments, or protecting ourselves from scams, these stories connect us and reflect profound transformations in society—transformations that we can collectively support and perhaps even help shape. This research aims to shed light on these stories—both big and small—of our daily digital practices and challenges by sharing the testimonies and experiences of the people supported by and those supporting them at Emmaüs Connect’s Digital Solidarity Spaces (ESN).

“Our Digital Daily Lives” is a research and civic expression project being piloted in Emmaüs Connect’s Parisian Digital Solidarity Spaces (ESN), led by the association and Sciences Po’s Medialab. The organization offers workshops called “Permanences connectées,” during which people come to learn how to use office software or shop online, to resolve identity verification issues, or to receive assistance with completing administrative procedures online. This diversity of situations makes these spaces valuable observatories for examining and analyzing the effects of a fully digital world.

The research is structured around several components that combine qualitative social science methodologies with innovative design research methods:

  • Participant observation and interviews at two Emmaüs Connect digital inclusion centers (ESNs) to conduct ethnographic fieldwork.
  • Collecting and sharing anecdotes from participants through a system for recording micro-stories set up in the ESNs.
  • Analyzing and organizing the results with the participants through reflection and expression workshops that bring together volunteers and those receiving support.
  • Promoting and disseminating the results through academic papers and media outlets.

This project is part of the médialab’s participation in the Citoyenneté et Numérique collective and a partnership with the Emmaüs Connect association. It is funded with support from Docaposte and Soprasteria. It has received guidance and approval from the Ethics Committee of the IEP in Paris (CER).