POLICY AND PRACTICE REVIEWS article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Medical Sociology
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1562088
This article is part of the Research TopicDigital Health and Medical AI: Participatory Governance, Algorithmic Fairness and Social JusticeView all 4 articles
European Digital Transformation for Roma Girls' Health: The Case of Spain
Provisionally accepted
Daniela E. Miranda1*
Valeria Terán-Tinedo1*
João Henrique Borges Bento1
Tomas de Jong2
Jaisalmer de Frutos–Lucas2- 1Sevilla University, Seville, Spain
- 2European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), Brussels, Belgium
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The digital experiences of Roma girls are shaped through the Digital Determinants of Health (DDoH) such as poor housing conditions with limited digital infrastructure, under-resourced public schools in marginalized neighborhoods, and dominant narratives that overlook their capacities and contributions. Although the European digital transformation advances rapidly, it often fails to address the enduring impacts of structural antigypsyism across DDoH. This article addresses the following questions: (1) how do European digital transformation efforts respond to the impacts of historical antigypsyism on Roma girls' digital experiences? (2) What dynamics across societal, community, interpersonal, and individual levels shape the violation and protection of Roma girls' digital rights in marginalized neighborhoods? and (3) How can European digital transformation policies be operationalized to support a shift from impoverished to meaningful digital participation for Roma girls across all levels of the digital ecosystem? To answer these, the study employs a triangulation approach integrating policy analysis of relevant European strategies on digitalization and Roma inclusion, field observations from ongoing participatory research, and a targeted literature review providing theoretical and comparative grounding. The triangulation of these sources supports the development of an analytical framework for Roma Girls' Digital Rights that allows to map digital experiences through an ecological lens. By bridging policies with local realities, this paper provides actionable recommendations to operationalize macro-level policies with the everyday realities of Roma girls, ensuring that they can experience digitalization as a pathway to empowerment and as active contributors to Europe's digital future.
Keywords: Roma (Gypsy) women, digital divide, digital determinants of health, Digital rights, Social Justice, digital transformation, adolescence
Received: 16 Jan 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Miranda, Terán-Tinedo, Borges Bento, de Jong and de Frutos–Lucas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Daniela E. Miranda, Sevilla University, Seville, Spain
Valeria Terán-Tinedo, Sevilla University, Seville, Spain
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