Togeth­er with inter­na­tion­al col­leagues, includ­ing those from UNC-Chapel Hill (USA), Research ICT Africa (South Africa), and the IZEW at the Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Anne Burkhardt from the RHET AI Cen­ter is par­ti­cip­at­ing in a pan­el and a Spe­cial Interest Group (SIG) on the top­ic of "Plat­form (In)Justice" at the 26th ACM Con­fer­ence on Com­puter-Sup­por­ted Cooper­at­ive Work and Social Com­put­ing (abbre­vi­ated as CSCW). The con­fer­ence takes place from 14th to 18th Octo­ber 2023 in Min­neapol­is (USA). Anne Burkhardt presents in both of her con­tri­bu­tions to these formats insights and find­ings from her study on the por­tray­al of AI in Lat­in Amer­ic­an cinema. Dur­ing the course of her study, in-depth inter­views were con­duc­ted with Lat­in Amer­ic­an film­makers to explore their exper­i­ences with and atti­tudes towards AI-based tech­no­lo­gies and plat­forms. Through film examples and quotes from the inter­views, Anne Burkhardt illus­trates the strong asso­ci­ation of AI with themes such as con­trol, exploit­a­tion, and data colo­ni­al­ism as expressed in the films and inter­views, and dis­cusses them in the con­text of deco­lo­ni­al the­or­ies and approaches.

Con­fer­ence web­site: https://cscw.acm.org/2023/

 

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Addi­tion­al inform­a­tion about the pan­el and SIG:

Panel: Platform (In)Justice: A Call for a Global Research Agenda

HEESOO JANG∗, Cen­ter for Inform­a­tion, Tech­no­logy, and Pub­lic Life, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA

NANDITHA NARAYANAMOORTHY∗, Cen­ter for Inform­a­tion, Tech­no­logy, and Pub­lic Life, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA

LAURA SCHELENZ∗, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

LOU THERESE BRANDNER, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

ANNE BURKHARDT, Cen­ter for Rhet­or­ic­al Sci­ence Com­mu­nic­a­tion Research on Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

SIMON DAVID HIRSBRUNNER, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

SCOTT TIMCKE, Research ICT Africa, South Africa

This pan­el calls for a glob­al con­ver­sa­tion around plat­form (in)justice. By focus­ing on the exper­i­ences of mar­gin­al­ized com­munit­ies, par­tic­u­larly those in the Major­ity World (also known as Glob­al South), we aim to redefine justice and injustice through a glob­al lens – as opposed to a West­ern-cent­ric lens. Our pan­el will delve into the socio-tech­nic­al real­it­ies of plat­forms as exper­i­enced by users and those doing the AI labor behind the plat­forms, recog­niz­ing plat­forms’ tan­gible impacts on indi­vidu­als and society.We invite the CSCW com­munity to engage with five cases (involving Afgh­anistan, India, Korea, South Africa, and broad­er Lat­in Amer­ica) that high­light the com­plex cul­tur­al, socio-eco­nom­ic, and polit­ic­al impact of tech­no­lo­gic­al sys­tems on dif­fer­ent social groups. With the Major­ity World as a frame­work of study, we explore loc­a­tion­al forms of justice, and most import­antly, open a dis­cus­sion on struc­tur­al solu­tions for plat­form injustice from the Major­ity World. Through our pan­el con­ver­sa­tions, we aspire to shape a glob­al research agenda for plat­form (in)justice, a focus area that can bring togeth­er expert­ise that is cur­rently scattered across the CSCW community.

 

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SIG: Platform (In)Justice: Exploring Research Priorities and Practical Solutions

HEESOO JANG∗, Cen­ter for Inform­a­tion, Tech­no­logy, and Pub­lic Life, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA

NANDITHA NARAYANAMOORTHY∗, Cen­ter for Inform­a­tion, Tech­no­logy, and Pub­lic Life, UNC-Chapel Hill, USA

LAURA SCHELENZ∗, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

LOU THERESE BRANDNER, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

ANNE BURKHARDT, Cen­ter for Rhet­or­ic­al Sci­ence Com­mu­nic­a­tion Research on Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

SIMON DAVID HIRSBRUNNER, Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Eth­ics in the Sci­ences and Human­it­ies, Uni­ver­sity of Tübin­gen, Germany

JESSICA PIDOUX, CEE Sci­ences Po, Par­is, France

SCOTT TIMCKE, Research ICT Africa, South Africa

AIRI LAMPINEN, Depart­ment of Com­puter and Sys­tems Sci­ences, Stock­holm Uni­ver­sity, Sweden

RIYAJ SHAIKH, Depart­ment of Com­puter and Sys­tems Sci­ences, Stock­holm Uni­ver­sity, Sweden

This SIG calls for a glob­al con­ver­sa­tion around plat­form (in)justice. By focus­ing on the exper­i­ences of people resid­ing in the Major­ity World (also known as Glob­al South), we aim at cre­at­ing a space for inter­na­tion­al and inter­dis­cip­lin­ary exchange on socio-eco­nom­ic­ally, polit­ic­ally, and cul­tur­ally sens­it­ive plat­form design and oper­a­tion. The fol­low­ing top­ics motiv­ate the SIG: con­cerns about equal access, struc­tur­al dis­crim­in­a­tion, glob­al inequit­ies, and the desire to find solu­tions to those chal­lenges. We invite the CSCW com­munity to explore how atten­tion to power rela­tions, colo­ni­al resid­ual, geo­pol­it­ic­al ten­sions, and his­tor­ic­al spe­cificit­ies can lead us to more sus­tain­able and just plat­form designs. Through our SIG, we aspire to shape a research agenda for plat­form (in)justice that cen­ters best prac­tices and solu­tions to medi­ate some of the harms pre­vi­ously iden­ti­fied in the CSCW com­munity. Going bey­ond this indi­vidu­al event, we will identi­fy strategies of action that cen­ter the needs and assets of people resid­ing in the Major­ity World when it comes to design­ing, uphold­ing or chal­len­ging the frame­works enabling con­tem­por­ary platforms.