DDRIG: The Ethical Practices and Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Tech-for-Good

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

This ethnographic study examines refugee tech initiatives with a focus on the actors involved in developing, deploying, and making use of various apps and digital platforms that address the challenges facing displaced people. The goal is to understand "tech-for-good" as an endeavor by empirically engaging with the ethical imaginaries and practices of the people developing and deploying such technologies in the context of transnational migration. In the wake of scandals and lawsuits against big tech companies, there is a broad recognition that high tech does not necessarily equal progress and positive change thus it is imperative to understand alternative technical imaginaries and ethical practices explored in this study. This project's results will provide valuable insights into different technical imaginaries for future technologists. Data will be made publicly available through the Platform for Experimental and Collaborative Ethnography, an online data-sharing platform. More specifically, the project focuses on the following research questions: What different ethical imaginaries undergird "tech-for-good" initiatives in the context of migration and displacement? How are ethical relations practiced by different actors in the development, launch, rollout, and continued deployment of "tech-for-good" initiatives? The researchers will address these questions by analyzing the media and promotional materials, as well as the digital artifacts themselves, alongside an ethnography that observes the practices as well as interviews that probe the ethical imaginaries that underlie actors’ "tech-for-good" initiatives. By attending to such initiatives in precarious and transnational spaces (rather than Silicon Valley companies or similarly elite tech spaces), the project will explore different ways "tech-for-good" practitioners develop and critically evaluate technical possibilities and hereby contribute to our understanding of the ethics of technology in practice. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.