ABSTRACT
To bring about social system change through action research, a study of the pattern of relationships between the paradigms of the system is essential. Such a stakeholder analysis, however, can deem invisible the human dimension that is fraught with cultural stigma, inequality, and precarity. At FemLab, we centre the lives of women workers to understand how digital communication tools can be leveraged to open up possibilities of work or to get better bargaining power by collectivizing. Through the “shadows of context” proposed by Eskerod and Larsen (2018), I argue that we can arrive at a more thorough understanding of the past, present, and future needs of women labourers. Through primary and secondary data from different sectors, I provide evidence of the challenges in a traditional understanding of stakeholder analysis. Additionally, I describe how contextual understanding can visibilize stakeholders and give a richer understanding of stakeholder intents and motives.
