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SC: Global Inequality

PART I — FORESIGHT SNAPSHOT  |  SC: Global Inequality  |  Fixed Time-Stamped Synthesis


2026 SC: Global Inequality

Card Type

Societal Challenge

Series

Immersive Futures Guild — Vision 2035

Layer

1 — Atomic Foresight Object

Status

Active

Confidence

Medium

Workshop

Circle of Scholars — January 2026

Facilitator

Circle of Scholars Workshop Team

Tags

global-inequality  |  geopolitics  |  access  |  layer1  |  sc

Tally.so Form

https://tally.so/r/ilrn-if-sc-gi-2026


The geopolitical distribution of XR and AI research capacity, infrastructure investment, technology manufacturing, and platform governance is heavily concentrated in a small number of countries and regions. This creates structural inequalities in who shapes immersive learning futures — whose pedagogical traditions are encoded into global platforms, whose researchers can access cutting-edge tools, and whose communities bear the costs of extractive technology deployment without capturing equivalent benefits.

Key Drivers / Contributing Conditions:

  • Technology manufacturing concentration in a small number of economies

  • Research funding inequality across regions

  • English-language and Western epistemological dominance in XR content and research

  • Global South infrastructure deficits compounded by climate vulnerability

Educational and Design Implications:

  • iLRN Geographic Chapters as structural equity mechanism

  • Multilingual and multicultural Codex contribution as a governance requirement

  • Research partnership models that transfer capacity rather than extract data

Tensions Carried Forward to Part II:

  • How can a global foresight program avoid reproducing the inequalities it documents?

  • When do 'global standards' impose uniformity that erases legitimate local variation?

Linked Scenarios / Strands: See cross-links above

Ways of Knowing: Tree  ·  Garden  ·  Lantern


PART II — COMMUNITY EVIDENCE & DIALOGUE TRACK  |  SC: Global Inequality  |  H2 2026 — Living


T

COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION FORM  —  SC: Global Inequality

Submit case examples, methodological challenges, cultural perspectives, and proposed evidence criteria via: https://tally.so/r/ilrn-if-sc-gi-2026


Part II — Scope and Instructions

This section collects community responses, case examples, and challenges to the Part I foresight snapshot above.

It opens July 1, 2026 and undergoes synthesis review in September 2026, November 2026, and January 2027.

Contributions are submitted via the Tally.so form above and appear in the registers below after editorial review.

The Part I text is not modified in response to Part II contributions; it is versioned at the Annual Handoff review.

Contribution categories:  Case Example  |  Methodological Challenge  |  Cultural/Community Perspective  |  Proposed Evidence Criterion

Ways of Knowing accepted:  Tree (evidence)  |  Garden (practice)  |  Lantern (futures)


Tensions Open for Community Response:

  • How can a global foresight program avoid reproducing the inequalities it documents?

  • When do 'global standards' impose uniformity that erases legitimate local variation?


Contributor / Date

Category

Way of Knowing

Contribution Summary

[ Awaiting contributions — form opens July 1, 2026 ]




 

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