At a moment when concerns over surveillance capitalism dominate public debate, Europe stands out as a global leader in shaping a fairer digital future. From advancing privacy and security through the GDPR to championing citizens’ digital rights and the “right to repair,” Europe continues to redefine what technological progress can mean for society.
Yet this story did not begin today. Over the past two decades, the rise of digital rights and citizenship has transformed the relationship between technology and politics, creating new spaces of participation and new forms of political subjectivity.
To understand these ideas, we need to look back. In the 1980s and 1990s, hobbyists and computer enthusiasts across Europe built vibrant grassroots cultures of creative computing. They used computers for experimentation, self-expression, and early forms of digital activism.
Exploring these early experiments is essential if we are to shape the next digital transformation around the values of participation, inclusion, and bottom-up innovation that have long defined Europe’s technological imagination.
Grassroots of Digital Europe (GRADE) is a COST Action that connects researchers from across Europe to share expertise, build capacity, and initiate new transnational projects exploring the social and cultural dimensions of Europe’s digital transformation.
WG1 conducts comparative transnational research on creative computing cultures and practices in Europe.
WG2 is focused on the interactions between grassroots creative computing movements and official institutions - both at national and pan-European levels.
WG3 explores ways of preserving creative computing as (in)tangible digital heritage.
COST Action CA21141 is an open, interdisciplinary and growing network welcoming academics, practitioners and relevant stakeholders to contribute to the activities of the grade work plan.
