The materiality of citizenship: digital practices of disabled people
Citizenship. Disabled people. Materiality. Digital practices. Actor-Network Theory.
The main objective of this thesis is to map the formation and action of sociotechnical actors that constitute the heterogeneous network of digital citizenship, including in this mapping the description and understanding of the elements that compose such a network. The research is based on the principles and foundations of the Actor-Network Theory applied to the notion of digital citizenship as a hybrid and plural process, of a techno-human condition, from the description and reflection of particular cases of people with physical disabilities (without full mobility of the arms, hands and fingers), aiming to identify and observe the actors, as well as their agencies and associations in all the particular moments that constitute the citizen activity, from the preparation of the objects to monitoring the activities online. In order to corroborate the concept of citizenship as a techno-human condition, based on Hannah Arendt studies, the categories of citizenship as labor, work and action are appropriate to account for the analysis of the trajectories of some subjects with physical limitations of health for connect to digital environments and consequently build their citizenship through digital platforms. Initiatives to publicize particular strategies for adapting technical equipment are mapped in order to identify the reasons that prevent and/or impede their access and also to know the characteristics of inventiveness and precariousness that are present in the individual processes of adaptation of the devices. The survey of empirical cases was done through the application of a questionnaire and interviews with the subjects in focus in this research, confirming the heterogeneous nature of digital citizenship.