Introduction and Objectives
“Digital Narratives. Gender, Inmigration and Religion on the Move” is a project driven by the Blanquerna Observatory of Communication, Religion and Culture that has been realized in the Raval neighborhood, which is located in Barcelona. The project has been financed by WACC (World Association for Christian Communication) with headquarters in Toronto.
In this project, more than 200 immigrant women living in the Raval neighborhood have been interviewed on the use of new technologies, its identity and religion. During the 6 months of the project, women from different Christian denomination, Hare Krishna and the Muslim communities have been interviewed, who have explained their relationships with new technologies: their fears, desires, abilities, defense … Throughout this presence (active, absent, militant, in the shadows …), we have discovered the face of the religious women immigrants within an urban space. All of them live in the old part of the city and face several problems related to marginalization and social exclusion. In fact, 39% of the population in this area are immigrants according to the latest statistics. Pakistan, the Philippines and Morocco are the main nationalities that are found in the old part of the city.
It is clear that digital barriers are broken and new forms of dialogue appear in the city through narratives. They use the tool of technology to have a relationship with their families; in other words, to be connected with the private sphere of life without renouncing a visibility, in some cases, of its religion that is constitutive of its identity.
The project has developed multiple stakeholder associations (with women as key figures) involving a public of different ages and different religions. Such a scenario is very necessary since there is currently no network that combines these characteristics: women-immigration-religion-digital-participation.
In addition to the quantitative study based on interviews, the project has conducted several in-depth interviews. You can see the result of the latest interviews in a video by clicking here.
Some results
You can check the results in the project webpage: http://www.womentechreligion.com. Some data is available in infographic shape:
For further results: http://www.womentechreligion.com/