Why the Risktakers
Fellowship?

Digital technologies are designed and used in ways that benefit certain groups while excluding or even harming others. By reflecting the lived realities of our societies (for example, the gender gap in access to resources and the under-representation of those pushed to the margins), they uphold existing systems of power and reinforce inequalities.

The Risktakers Fellowship aims to create a space to rethink dominant systems and practices by imagining alternative approaches and new possibilities for desirable digital futures. It acknowledges and supports the work of people who dare to resist common – and often comfortable – narratives by drawing attention to social and structural grievances as well as offering possible solutions and exits. The Risktakers Fellowship sees desirable futures centering around care, equity and sustainability are possible if we dare to imagine and build them together.

The Risktakers
Fellowship aims to:

• Develop new approaches that face the crises of our present (such as the climate crisis, social and structural inequalities, discrimination, war, mass species extinction) by envisioning and enacting ideas for inclusive and just digital futures.
• Demonstrate that desirable futures that center around care, intersectionality, equity and sustainability are possible if we dare to explore new ways of thinking.
• Bring a multitude of perspectives and disciplines into discussions on digital policy and futures.
• Link up and enrich discussions around diversity, inclusion, intersectionality and tech.
• Contribute to a tech and civil society ecosystem that is anchored in values of collaboration, fairness, equality and equity.
• Extend networks and forms of collaboration further by creating a space for exchange and mutual learning.