Mobile Social Congress

Speakers 2024

PRESENTS

Marta Molina
is a freelance journalist specialising in the coverage of social movements, indigenous resistance and non-violent resistance movements. Her reporting focuses on explaining how civil society and indigenous peoples in various regions of the world organise to defend their land and human rights, and to live with dignity. She has worked in Palestine, Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala, always focusing on gathering information about local social movements and the defence of the land. She currently runs the podcast "Eutopías, Lugares del buen vivir" @eutopias_buenvivir. She is making a documentary on the defence of water, a humble contribution so that our ways of life are compatible with planetary boundaries.

SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS

Cori Crider
Co-founded and co-directs Foxglove, a legal non-profit founded to make the use of technology fair. Foxglove won the UK’s first, legal challenges to abusive government algorithms, used in migration and student grading. They are involved in litigation against Facebook in Kenya on behalf of workers, and have brought several legal cases to preserve trust and consent in the use of British patient data. She writes and speaks about justice in technology. She was previously a Director at Reprieve, where she represented victims of drone attacks and Guantánamo detainees.

Dimitri Kessler
Received a doctoral degree from the University of Wisconsin in the sociology of Chinese economic development and workers' rights. With +20 yrs experience working in the Chinese region, he founded the Economic Rights Institute in Hong Kong in 2012 to design fieldwork and services to support employer employee dialogue and identify how to respond more effectively to issues including workers' perceptions of income and workers' well being. Dr. Kessler's public writings include the pioneering study of Chinese electronics, The Link Between Employment Conditions and Suicide. Having recently moved to London, he continues to work with code of conduct groups and industry to support alliances in the pursuit of solutions to foster the conditions for better work.

Laura Fontana Sierra
holds a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), specialising in studies with indigenous peoples, particularly the Mapuche people of southern Chile. She is currently the Head of Advocacy for the organisation alterNativa Intercambio con Pueblos Indígenas, and also has experience coordinating cooperation and awareness-raising projects in different places in both the Global North and South.

Leandro Navarro
holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), is a professor at this university and vice-president of pangea.org. He is co-rapporteur of the UN body ITU-T Q7/SG5 on e-waste, circular economy and sustainable supply chain management. He is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC.org) and trustee of the guifi.net Foundation.

Mercè Botella Mas
is a founding member of Som Connexió, and part of the technical team, where among other functions, she participates in the project of childhood and screens of the cooperative. She holds a degree on Psycology and is the author of La guia per famílies malvades i cruels (the guide for cruel and evil families).

Sergi Onorato
academic qualifications aside, is a member of Descontrol Editorial SCCL, a trade unionist in the Neibourhood union of Poble Sec, a member of the Ateneu Cooperatiu la Base and a writer in the shared intimacy of his home. His life is a combination of being a friend, colleague, teacher, librarian, hacker, organiser and amateur technician of all kinds of machines and computer devices. From a very young age he has been a collector and reader of books, a fact that has led him to edit, design and print texts related to the libertarian ideal. With words (among other means) he wants to radically eradicate the exploitation of some people over others, promoting solidarity and cooperation towards common welfare. Always present in the most diverse movements, he hopes to see the end of capitalism and all oppression one day, and devote himself to painting and cultivating his garden. Nor does he rule out doing so as part of the process of emancipation from the productivist system to which we are slaves, on the long road to the abolition of work, time control and the working day.

Siddharth Kara
is a British Academy Global Professor and an associate professor at the University of Nottingham. He is best known for his book Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (St. Martin's Press, 2023). He has also published a trilogy on modern slavery: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009), Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012), and Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017).

Sofía Trejo
is a researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) working on the ethical, social, political and cultural aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Interested in promoting critical understanding of technology, with a particular focus on gender and the Global South. She holds a BA in Mathematics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Warwick. She has worked as a researcher at the University of São Paulo and Imperial College London. She promotes the incorporation of inter- and trans-disciplinary study of the impacts of technology within and outside the academy. She has designed courses, seminars and curricula in AI and Data Science and workshops on critical approaches to technology for diverse audiences. She was co-leader of the National AI Agenda for Mexico and member of the Advisory Council of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) of Mexico. He is a member of Mexico's National System of Researchers (SNI).

Xavier Casanovas Combalia
holds a degree in mathematics and a PhD in philosophy. Professor of the Chair of Ethics at IQS - Universitat Ramon Llull. Spokesperson for the Adolescència Lliure de Mòbils (Mobile free adolescence) initiative. Father of three children who go to La Mar Bella school in Poblenou.