Gender and Digital Technologies: Between Violence, Discrimination and Agency An introduction

This Special Issue on “Gender and Digital Technologies: Between Violence, Discrimination, and Agency” aims to contribute to the ongoing debate by exploring the multifaceted relationship between digital technologies and gender issues from a legal and social perspective. Far from reducing the adoption of a gender lens to the mere inclusion of a female component in the analysis of digitalisation processes, this volume emphasises that such an approach requires a profound rethinking of the categories and analytical frameworks employed. This has significant legal and social implications. The decision to include the terms “violence”, “discrimination” and “agency” in the title is intended to emphasise the controversial impact of digital technologies on gender-based hierarchies and injustices, while also highlighting their potential to generate new opportunities for individual and collective agency and action in challenging these roles and models. The aim, therefore, is to explore the intricate tensions, contradictions and ambiguities inherent in the relationship between digital technologies and the gender dimension, drawing on insights from legal and social studies and seeking to address multiple, often interconnected, themes within a coherent and integrated framework. This volume brings together eleven contributions from the disciplines of law, social science and political science. Each chapter engages with one of four core themes: the conceptual and methodological insights offered by gender and feminist perspectives on digital technologies; digital gender-based violence; processes of stigmatisation and discrimination generated or addressed through digital technologies and the impact of digitalisation on bodies and the realm of sexuality.