Digital Safe Spaces

Abstract

In today’s interconnected world, digital spaces have become essential arenas for social interaction, self-expression, and community building. Among these, the concept of digital safe spaces has gained prominence, providing marginalized communities with spaces where they can seek refuge from discrimination, harassment, and oppression. These spaces are crucial for fostering inclusivity, support, and community building. This research departs from these spaces and aims to explore their nature by contributing to the growing literature on digital safe spaces, expanding the knowledge of this area, especially in the Information Systems (IS) field. Positioned in the empirical context of the video game industry, specifically, women in game development and political actions in the gaming sphere, this thesis builds on four interrelated studies and one book chapter, each contributing to a comprehensive understanding of digital safe spaces. These studies provide a conceptualization of digital safe spaces based on characteristics and types and discuss the importance of the cultivation of digital safe spaces to create a sense of safeness. In addition, digital safe spaces are examined as desired territories for participants who can potentially experience transformation through their participation in these spaces. By providing this multi-faceted analysis, this thesis contributes to the discourse on safety, safeness, inclusivity, and social change, offering insights for scholars interested in issues of marginalization, resistance, and digital technologies.