Social media, inequality, and futures. Bridging realities in policy and programming.

While there has been a proliferation of social media and communication media use globally, there is a lack of information on how social media is leveraged in urban areas, especially in the Global South. This includes limited understanding how social media helps people navigate the city, maintain and build networks, access information, and plan for the future. To inform programme and policy, it is necessary to not only understand access to social media, but also the skills and usage of social media across different demographic groups in local contexts.

People use social media to access different kinds of information and carve out new futures. But social media also entrench inequalities, as demonstrated by increasing digital divides and disconnect between the kinds of information migrants, displaced and other community members receive and that are available to civil society, state, and humanitarian actors. Women, those from poorer and more marginalised social backgrounds, from rural areas, and from poorer refugee backgrounds do not access and use social media in the same ways as those from more privileged backgrounds. Moreover, while social media can be used as a tool to strengthen social connections and expanding access to information, it can also be used to facilitate rapid dissemination of disinformation and prejudice, with increased tension and conflict between groups locally.
This networking event is organised by the partners of the research project Social Media and the Crisis of Urban Inequality: Transnational analyses of humanitarian response across the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, funded by the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE). The project cover three study sites: India, Uganda, and Lebanon. It is co-lead by London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Urban-A, with project partners ActionAid, Triangle, and Oxfam. The project examines how social media is used to navigate the terrain between humanitarianism and inequality, and how social media and communications media play a key role in alleviating and exacerbating inequalities.

The event will facilitate a dialogue among academics and practitioners engaging with urban inequalities and social media, drawing on research and practice from displacement contexts in the Global South. Through presentations and a moderated discussion, the panellists will shed light on the role of social media in crafting communities and possible futures both locally and across geographies. The discussion will help nuance the ways in which social media rely on and perpetuate distinctions and inequalities between different groups, and how localised initiatives address inequalities and strengthen access to opportunities. The panellists will present findings on access, skills and use of social media among migrants, displaced and poor urban populations in different cities, and examples of new and innovative initiatives leveraging social media in policy and programming.