Is Computing Ready for Just Sustainability?
Information Technologies (ITs) have a conflicted relationship with environmental sustainability and social justice. In principle, computing can be a key to both: it can enable open information access, support sustainable lifestyles, and, in some cases, help us to offer valuable services with less environmental impact than their non-digital counterparts. But in practice, IT often causes as much harm as good. How can we change that?
Economic objectives vs. social considerations
The technologies we live with today often advance economic objectives at the expense of social and environmental considerations. Tomorrow's designs must advance social and environmental values simultaneously with technical and economic objectives. This fact has prompted many in computing to work on designing for sustainability and to tackle questions of justice and fairness. But their good intentions have not changed the trajectory of computing.
This talk introduces the concept of “just sustainability” in computing, explores how it challenges our understanding of technology design, and shows how computing can be (re)oriented for just sustainability.
The lecture will be held in English.