The World inside a Smartphone

This exercise makes visible how strongly digital devices are connected to global supply chains, social conditions and environmental issues. Participants locate the most important raw materials of a smartphone on a world map (analog or digital). This reveals that behind every device lie complex production and exploitation relations that also touch on questions of global justice, sustainability and political responsibility. After the mapping exercise, students discuss different questions.

Goals

Raise awareness of the global dimension of digital devices
Recognize connections between raw material extraction, production and consumption
Reflect on how social and ecological justice are linked to digitalization
Critically question what political and individual action options exist

Material

Samples or small specimens of metals/minerals (e.g. copper wire, small lithium battery, sand as a symbol for silicon, coin as a substitute for nickel)
Information cards with brief details about the raw materials (mining locations, use in mobile phones, ecological/social consequences)
World map or globe
More information about raw materials and sources: Digitalisation and the Environment

Steps

1. Introduction (5 minutes)

The young people show their own mobile phones. Question: ‘What do you think your mobile phone is made of?’ initial spontaneous collection.

2. Discovery (15 minutes)

The trainer opens the ‘raw materials case’ and distributes the samples. Each group receives a material and the corresponding information card. Task: Read the information and discuss: Where does it come from, what is it used for, what problems arise during extraction?

3. World map activity (15 minutes)

Groups locate ‘their’ raw material on the world map (e.g. lithium → Chile/Bolivia/Argentina, cobalt → Congo, rare earths → China).

4. Exchange (10 minutes)

Presentation to the whole group. Discussion: ‘What connections do you notice?’ (e.g. many countries in the Global South – use in the North).

Reflection

What surprises you most?
What does this mean for our everyday lives?
What are the consequences of needing so many raw materials in our devices?
What does this mean for countries where these materials are mined?
How could devices be used more sustainably so that fewer new raw materials are needed?

Variations

Low-tech: If there are no raw material samples available → use symbols (e.g. coin = copper, battery = lithium, magnet = neodymium).
In-depth: Each group develops a short ‘raw material story’ (from extraction to use).
Online: Digital world map/Padlet with raw material information instead of physical materials.

Handbook: More than Go with the Flow

A handbook on Digital Citizenship Education, created in the frame of the project DIYW-ROAD/Competendo. Digital Youth Work - rights-sensitive, open, accessible, democratic.
Unless otherwise stated, authors and editors of the methods published in the project are Elisa Rapetti, Markus José Plasencia Kanzler, and Nils-Eyk Zimmermann