As everyday life becomes increasingly datafied, the biases embedded in data-driven systems raise urgent concerns around discrimination and social inequality. While data literacy is widely recognized as essential for civic participation, less attention is given to approaches that foreground social justice. Critical DataLit responds to this gap by promoting data literacies that empower young people to critically analyze, reflect on, and act against injustices in digital systems.

This research extends digital citizenship education by introducing creative, participatory methods—such as design fiction and speculative design—with youth aged 11 to 17 in schools, fablabs, makerspaces, and youth centers. These practices aim to broaden participation, especially among non-technical learners, and support meaningful engagement with data and AI.

Eva Durall Gazulla, Academy postdoctoral researcher at the INTERACT research unit at University of Oulu, Finland. Her expertise areas include media and technology, design and learning using critical approaches as well as participatory design and futures techniques to engage participants in research. Currently, she leads various projects exploring democratic values in technology design and use with young people (PI in “Critical DataLit: Cultivating justice-oriented data literacies among GenZ” and co-PI in the Horizon Europe “Democracy meets arts: critical change labs for building democratic cultures through creative and narrative practices”).

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