Critical Literacies & Human Agency explores how individuals can maintain autonomy, critical judgement, and informed participation in an increasingly AI-mediated and information-saturated society. This content examines topics such as AI literacy, disinformation, digital rights, algorithmic bias, media literacy, and the broader social impact of emerging technologies, with a focus on strengthening democratic participation and learner agency.

The defining challenge of an AI-mediated society is no longer access to information, but the judgement required to make sense of it. As generative AI, recommender systems, and algorithmic curation become embedded in everyday life, the question shifts from what people can reach to what they can still critically evaluate when so much of the work of selection, framing, and synthesis is done for them.

This programme cluster examines how people can sustain agency in environments shaped by opaque systems designed to influence attention, behaviour, and decision-making. The premise is that digital literacy now requires more than technical competence. Citizens need critical AI literacies: the capacity to interrogate the accuracy, fairness, transparency, and social implications of the automated systems that increasingly mediate their lives.

Our work spans the full arc of the problem, from the practical skills needed to identify AI-generated misinformation and algorithmic manipulation, to deeper questions about autonomy, platform surveillance, and the attention economy.

Particular attention is given to how technological systems can reinforce existing social inequalities. The cluster investigates the intersections between AI, social inclusion, and digital rights, examining how socio-economic status, migration background, disability, gender, and educational opportunity shape exposure to algorithmic harm and digital exclusion.

Drawing on past initiatives such as Beyond Digital Natives and the Young People and Information Manifesto, the cluster develops strategic primers, policy briefs, open-access toolkits, action research projects, public campaigns, and international forums designed for adaptation across both Commonwealth and European contexts.

The work is multidisciplinary by design, integrating perspectives from education, sociology, media literacy, psychology, communication studies, and digital governance. Its outputs are intended for educators redesigning pedagogy for the AI age, policymakers developing digital governance frameworks, civil society organisations supporting vulnerable communities, and citizens seeking to navigate an increasingly fragmented and automated information environment.

Ultimately, the cluster is grounded in a simple but urgent proposition: in a post-truth society shaped by algorithmic systems, preserving human agency becomes one of the central educational and democratic challenges of the twenty-first century.