Technology, Justice, Design

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In recent years we’ve seen a technological explosion that has reformulated every aspect of human life, from healthcare and commerce to education and entertainment. Martin Luther King Jr. reflected on the potential for technology to eclipse our sense of humanity, observing the need for a shift “from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society.” As King inferred, scientific progress could give the illusion that equivalent gains had been made in the social, cultural, and political realms, thus rendering the realization of justice even more elusive. When such concerns are expressed, one may hear the retort that it’s “just technology” in the sense that any ethical concerns are dependent upon what we do with it. Yet what if we took this notion and inquired what “just technology” would look like in practice, if it was produced, consumed and utilized with justice infused throughout the chain? How might values of access, mobility, collaboration, and equity transect the aims of technology and justice? How are movements for justice using technology, and how are they regulated with it? In this course, we will engage these queries through an array of texts and design based activities for mapping the ethical implications of our interactions with technology. The aim is to deeply interrogate core issues of justice embedded within modern technology and explore these through a studio environment.