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Safer spaces are living arrangements that must be continuously sensed and adjusted as conditions shift. Iteration is not failure, but a sign of attentiveness to changing risks, energy, and capacities. In hybrid and digital contexts, this often means reconfiguring tools, formats, or timelines as participants’ realities collide with institutional plans or platform constraints. Rather than eliminating tensions around hierarchy, access, and conflicting needs, facilitators must work with them, treating reflection on these tensions as part of the process itself.

This perspective is reflected in Nyx McLean’s work with the Feminist Internet Research Network (FIRN), including research on feminist internet practices and The Left Out Project, which documents online gender-based violence experienced by transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse people across four African countries (McLean, 2025). In developing this playbook, we spoke with McLean about how safety, hierarchy, consent, and discomfort show up in everyday digital community life (McLean, interview, February 2026).

A key insight from this work is that equity-oriented digital processes are inherently messy. They do not move in a straight line from plan to outcome, but unfold through contradictions, ethical dilemmas, and shifting conditions. Rather than smoothing over this complexity, McLean argues it should be engaged directly, as these “messy” moments are where care, accountability, and rigour are actually produced. With this in mind organisers could allow for reflection before or after activities.