Communication for social change: advances in gender, technology and social innovation (Morocco and Tunisia)

Abstract

This article reports on the experiences of the three editions of the "Gender, Technology and Social Innovation" project, developed in Morocco and Tunisia. It has promoted the technological and professional training of women entrepreneurs and students in these countries, in collaboration with other social agents, with the central objective of empowering them in communication and in the use of digital technologies, through transformative learning. After the training and as agents of local development for their communities, these women manage to promote the use of collaborative spaces for entrepreneurship, social innovation and transformation with a gender perspective, always adapted to the social and collective needs of the context. The study of the use, training and appropriation of digital communication by women makes it possible to see that technologies are not gender-neutral. It is consolidated as a model for a communication and digitalisation project that encourages the creation of a gender agenda in the participating women and promotes endogenous social development through social innovation. As an educational innovation with a gender perspective, it encourages student action and participation in the challenges and processes of social change in local development, through project-based learning. Finally, it generates the transfer of a decentralised collaborative innovation experience based on technology for social organisations and cooperation, adaptable to different contexts of intervention and social policies.