Description

The rapid expansion of digital technologies has profoundly reshaped political communication, mobilization, and identity formation across both the Global North and the Global South. While much of the existing research on the topic has focused on Europe and North America, far less attention has been paid to how these dynamics unfold in South America, Africa, and Asia—and, crucially, to how they are increasingly interconnected across regions. Today, digital environments enable the accelerated circulation of political imaginaries, discourses, and repertoires, articulating geographically distant contexts into shared—though highly uneven—fields of identity formation, boundary-making, and conflict.

Across these settings, a wide range of political actors—including right- and left-wing extremist groups—strategically use platform infrastructures to disseminate narratives, mobilize supporters, and construct collective identities. These processes are closely tied to the production and contestation of national, religious, ethnic, and ideological identities, often intensified in digital environments through affective communities, polarized in-group/out-group dynamics, and algorithmic amplification.

At the same time, these developments are embedded in diverse local conditions while being shaped by global technological architectures. Emerging tools—such as encrypted messaging, recommendation algorithms, and AI-generated content—further complicate questions of governance, democratic accountability, and social cohesion, contributing to increasingly borderless forms of radicalization.

This webinar, organised within the ENLIGHT IDenti-T Network, explores these intersections from a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. It brings together contributions that examine digital practices, platform power, identity politics, and online/offline mobilization, with particular attention to transnational dynamics between the Global North and South. In doing so, it aims to foster dialogue across academic, policy, and civil society arenas on the implications of these transformations for democracy, inclusion, and rights.

We strongly encourage cross-sectoral participation from researchers, civil society actors, practitioners, and policy-makers, with the aim of creating a space for critical exchange and collaborative reflection.

Presenters

Camilo Tamayo Gómez, University of Huddersfield

Camilo Tamayo Gómez is a Reader at the Department of Social and Psychological Sciences at The University of Huddersfield (UK). He is Senior Adviser in Transitional Justice for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and President of the Research Committee on Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change (RC48) of the International Sociological Association (ISA). He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ, Oxford University Press). His current research focuses on the relationship between security, conflict, transnational and comparative criminology, global south criminology, multiplatform social justice, and transitional justice from a sociological perspective. 

Ottavia Galuzzi, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI)

Ottavia Galuzzi is a cybersecurity expert and counter terrorism practitioner, focusing on the interconnection of human rights and digital technologies. As Associate Expert at the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Ottavia works on projects to explore the connection between cyber and terrorism/violent extremism. She has experience working in the private and public sectors, both at the European and international levels, as a cybersecurity and intelligence consultant. She has also experience in the civil society sector, where she built the knowledge and skills of NGOs to prepare for cyberattacks. She is an experienced trainer on cybersecurity and cybercrime related topics. As independent expert, she wrote about human rights indicators in crisis protocol responses to address terrorist and violent extremist content online; and the online activities of Italian far-right actors, focusing on the ideological proximity with malicious actors in cyberspace. She has a Master’s Degree in Cybersecurity, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism from Macquarie University, Australia.       

Moderator

Ignacia Perugorría, University of the Basque Country

Format

• Presentations: up to 1h30
• Breakout discussions: 15 minutes (depending on number of presenters)
• Plenary discussion: 15 minutes

Microsoft Teams meeting

• Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/358548435244955?p=mB21biVGR7tSL7ZS2n
• Meeting ID: 358 548 435 244 955
• Passcode: AA6cz3bc

Organizers

University of the Basque Country (EHU) Node of the ENLIGHT IDenti-T Network.

About ENLIGHT IDenti-T: Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Evolving Identities in Times of Democratic Transformations

IDenti-T is a EU-funded interdisciplinary network that explores how identities are constructed, transformed, and contested in times of democratic change. Bringing together researchers from multiple fields and institutions, the network examines the interactions between identity, socio-legal structures, and political processes, while fostering cross-sectoral dialogue and collaboration. The network is jointly developed by four ENLIGHT partner institutions: the University of Galway, the University of Bordeaux, the University of Göttingen, and the University of the Basque Country (EHU). Its goal is to contribute to more inclusive and resilient democratic societies by advancing research, teaching, and public engagement on evolving identities in contemporary contexts.