00:00Oh, yeah, welcome everyone.
00:03I'm going to try not to
take up too much of the time
00:04because I really
want to make sure
00:06that we have a chance to have
a lot of Q&A with the audience.
00:11And we'll tell you how that's
going to work in a minute.
00:13But first I'm going to give
you a little bit of context
00:17and a brief excerpt from
the book to get us rolling.
00:22So I'd like to actually start
with a land acknowledgment.
00:31In the Design Justice
Network we try and do
00:34this as a practice in general
in all the workshops that we do.
00:38And so even though
this is a virtual event
00:40and we're all in different
physical locations,
00:42I want to acknowledge
that personally me as well
00:46as the physical location
of the MIT Press
00:50are on the lands of the
Mashpee, Wampanoag, the Aquinnah
00:53Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, and
the Massachusetts peoples.
00:58And actually right now the
Mashpee tribe are facing--
01:03the federal government is
trying to eliminate their status
01:08as a recognized tribe,
which would really cause
01:12a lot of problems for them.
01:13So I encourage folks to
learn a little bit more
01:16about the Mashpee
people and support them
01:19in their fight against
the US federal government.
01:23We have a responsibility
to acknowledge
01:25the history and the ongoing
violence of settler colonialism
01:28and to ask how we individually
and institutionally can
01:32seek to end that violence
and find new paths forward.
01:36And so I invite people
to take a moment
01:40to think about whose
lands you might be on.
01:43You can visit native-land.ca,
and you could add your name
01:50and an acknowledgment of
the peoples whose lands
01:53you're on in the chat if you'd
like to do that right now
01:57or just reflect on
it for yourself.
02:04So the book Design Justice
is organized in this way.
02:08After the introduction, there
are five substantive chapters
02:13and then a directions
for future work section.
02:16And it's really organized
around a number of questions
02:19that have come up in the
Design Justice Network,
02:21as well as for myself and
my own practice as someone
02:25actively working
on Design projects
02:28on platform development and
interface design as well
02:32So in my work teaching the
Collaborative Design Studio
02:35course at MIT over
the last decade,
02:38I've really come up with
a number of questions.
02:42And in conversation
with my communities,
02:45things like what values
are being hardcoded
02:50into the objects and the systems
and the built environment
02:53that we're designing?
02:56How do we think about design
practices that could really
02:58be more inclusive taking a page
from the Disability Justice
03:04movement and the slogan,
"Nothing about us without us."
03:09I also am interested in the
question of design narratives
03:12and who gets to tell
stories about how
03:15design and technological
innovation take place.
03:20In chapter 4, I dive
into design sites
03:24and think about what physical
locations get privileged
03:29as sites of design
innovation so hackerspaces
03:32and thought labs and hackathons.
03:35And how those sites
sometimes themselves
03:37can really reproduce exclusive
dynamics of race, class,
03:41and gender and ability.
03:45And then the fifth chapter
is about design pedagogies.
03:48And it's thinking
about how can we
03:51teach and learn to do Design
Justice work together.
03:54And at the end, I
raised some questions
03:57about possible directions
for future work.
03:59But today what I'm
going to do is give you
04:01a short excerpt from the
introduction and some thoughts
04:07about that context of
where this work comes from
04:11and then we'll get into the Q&A.
04:14So I'd like to begin
in June of 2017.
04:20I'm standing in the security
line at the Detroit Metro
04:22Airport on my way back to
Boston from the Allied Media
04:26Conference, which is a
collaborative laboratory
04:29of media-based organizing that's
held every year in Detroit
04:32for the past two decades.
04:33And the screen is
showing a video
04:36about some of what happened
to the Allied Media Conference
04:40At the AMC, over 2000 people,
media makers and designers,
04:45activists and organizers,
software developers, artists,
04:48filmmakers, researchers, and
all kinds of cultural workers
04:52gather every year to
share ideas and strategies
04:56for how to create a more just,
creative, and collaborative
05:00And as a nonbinary, transgender,
femme-presenting person,
05:04my time there is always
deeply liberating.
05:07It's a conference that strives
harder than any that I know of
05:10to be deeply inclusive
of all kinds of people,
05:13including queer,
trans, intersex,
05:15and gender nonconforming folks.
05:18Of course, it's not perfect
and every year inevitably
05:21brings new challenges and
difficult conversations
05:24about what it means to build
a truly inclusive space.
05:27It's a powerful experience.
05:29And after a week
there, I'm always tired
05:32but on a deep level
I'm refreshed.
05:34And my reservoir of
belief in the possibility
05:36of creating a better future
has been replenished.
05:41Yet as I stand in
the security line
05:44and draw closer to
the millimeter wave
05:46scanning machine, my stress
levels begin to rise.
05:50My heartbeat speeds up slightly
as I near the end of the line
05:53because I know that
I'm almost certainly
05:55about to be subject to an
embarrassing, uncomfortable,
05:58and humiliating search
by a TSA officer.
06:01After my body is flagged as
anomalous by the millimeter
06:07I know that this
is almost certainly
06:08about to happen because of
the particular sociotechnical
06:11configuration of
gender normativity.
06:15In this case, cisnormativity
or the assumption
06:17that all people have a gender
identity and presentation that
06:21are consistent with the sex
they were assigned at birth.
06:25And I know that's been
built into the scanner
06:27through the combination
of user interface design,
06:30scanning technology, binary
gender to body shape data
06:33constructs, and risk
detection algorithms, as well
06:37as the socialization, training,
and experience of the TSA
06:42So a female-presenting TSA
agent motions me to step forward
06:48And I raise my arms like
this and place my hands
06:51in a triangle shape with
my palms facing forward
06:54above my head as many
of you have probably
06:58And the scanner
spins around my body.
07:02And then the agent signals
for me to step forward out
07:04of the machine and wait
with my feet on the pad
07:07just past the scanner exit.
07:11I glance to the
left where a screen
07:13displays an abstracted
outline of a human body.
07:17And as I expected, a bright
fluorescent yellow black
07:21on the diagram
highlights my groin area
07:23as you can see in the slide.
07:26Because you see when
I entered the scanner,
07:28the TSA operator on the other
side was prompted by the UI
07:32to select male or female.
07:34And since my gender
presentation is nonbinary femme,
07:38usually the operator
selects female.
07:41But the three
dimensional contours
07:43of my body at
millimeter resolution
07:45differ from the statistical
norm of female bodies
07:48as understood by the data set
and the risk algorithm designed
07:52by the manufacturer
of the millimeter wave
07:54scanner and its subcontractors.
07:57And as trained by a
small army of click
08:00workers who are tasked with
labeling and classification
08:03as scholars like Lilly
Irani, Nick Dyer Weatherford,
08:06and Mary Gray in her new
book Ghost Work remind us.
08:11If the agent selects
male, my breasts
08:14are large enough statistically
speaking in comparison
08:17to the normative
male body construct
08:20to trigger an anomalous
warning and a highlight
08:23around the chest area.
08:24And if they select
female, my groin area
08:26deviates enough from the norm
to trigger the risk alert.
08:30And these bright yellow
pixels highlight my groin
08:33as you can see on the
flat panel display.
08:36In other words, I can't win.
08:39The sociotechnical system is
hardwired to mark me as risky,
08:43and that triggers an
escalation to the next level
08:46in the security protocol.
08:48And that's in fact what
happens at this moment when
08:55So next, the agent
asks me to step aside
08:58and asks for my consent
to a physical body search.
09:01Now, typically at
this point, once I'm
09:03close enough to the
agent, they become
09:05confused about my gender.
09:08And this presents a problem
because the next step
09:10in security protocol, if
you read the TSA manual,
09:14it says if a pat
down is performed,
09:16it will be conducted by an
officer of the same gender
09:20as you present yourself.
09:22As a nonbinary
transfemme, I present
09:24a problem that's not easily
resolved by that security
09:29So sometimes the
agent assumes I prefer
09:31to be searched by a female,
sometimes male, sometimes they
09:37And unfortunately, neither
is an honest but not
09:41an acceptable response.
09:43So today I'm
particularly unlucky.
09:45And the nearby male-presenting
agent observes the interaction.
09:49He loudly states, I'll do it,
and he strides over towards me.
09:53I say, aren't you going
to ask what I prefer?
09:56And he pauses and moves
back towards me again.
09:59The other agent stops him
and asks what I would like.
10:02But now I'm standing
in public, I'm
10:04flanked by two TSA agents,
a line of curious travelers
10:08watching the whole interaction.
10:10And ultimately, the
male-presenting agent
10:13Female-presenting agent
searches me, runs her hands
10:18all over my arms, across my
breasts, down inside my pants,
10:24She makes a face as if she's
as uncomfortable as I am.
10:28And then I'm cleared to depart.
10:33I know this story is to provide
a small but concrete example
10:37from my own
daily-lived experience
10:39how larger systems, including
norms, values, and assumptions
10:43are encoded in and reproduced
through the design of social
10:46[INAUDIBLE] or in political
theorist Landon Winner's
10:49famous words, how
artifacts have politics.
10:53In this case,
cisnormativity is reinforced
10:55at multiple levels of my
interaction with airport
11:01Anyone whose body doesn't fall
within an acceptable range
11:04of deviance from a
normative binary body type
11:07is flagged as risky
and is subject
11:09to a heightened and
disproportionate burden
11:11of the harms both small
or potentially large
11:15of airport security systems
and the violence of empire
11:20So queer and trans
people are thus
11:22disproportionately burdened by
the design of millimeter wave
11:25scanning technology and the
way that technology is used.
11:30Well, the system is
biased against us.
11:33To use [INAUDIBLE],, it's
a misgendering machine.
11:37Most cisgender people
are unaware of the fact
11:40that the millimeter wave
scanners operate this way.
11:44But most trans people
know because it directly
11:49And of course, these
systems are not only
11:51biased against trans
people but also
11:54against Black people who
frequently experience
11:57invasive searches of their hair
as documented by ProPublica.
12:01Against Sikh men, Muslim
women, and others who wear head
12:04wraps as described
by sociologist
12:07Simone Browne, who is the
author of Dark Matters.
12:10As Browne discusses
and as Joy Buolamwini,
12:13founder of the
Algorithmic Justice League
12:15technically demonstrates
gender itself is racialized.
12:19Humans have trained our machines
to categorize faces and bodies
12:23as male and female
through lenses
12:26tinted by the optics
of white supremacy.
12:29Airport security is also
systematically biased
12:32against many people
with disabilities
12:35who are likely to be
flagged as risky if they
12:37have nonnormative body shapes
or if they use prostheses.
12:41And those who are simultaneously
queer, trans, Black,
12:45Indigenous, people of
color, Muslim or immigrant,
12:48and/or disabled are doubly,
triply, or multiply burdened by
12:53and therefore face the highest
risk of harms from the system.
12:58So my white skin,
US citizenship,
13:01and institutional
affiliation with MIT
13:04placed me in a position
of relative privilege
13:07because I will
certainly be spared
13:08the most disruptive and harmful
outcomes of security screening.
13:12So for example, I don't have
to worry that this process will
13:15lead to my being placed in a
detention center or deportation
13:21I won't be hooded and whisked
away to Guantanamo Bay
13:24or to one of the many
other secret prisons that
13:26form part of the
global infrastructure
13:28of the so-called war on terror.
13:30And most likely, I won't
even miss my flight
13:33while I'm detained for what
security expert Bruce Schneier
13:36describes as security theater.
13:39Others face much
greater potential harms.
13:45And here I want us to share a
moment to think about Johana
13:52Johanna Medina León
died on June 1st 2019,
13:57the first day of Pride Month.
13:59She was a 25-year-old
transwoman from El Savador who
14:03was detained, in other
words, incarcerated
14:06by ICE, Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement,
14:09for over a month at Otero County
Processing Center in Mexico.
14:15ironically, given the
current global pandemic
14:18and also given Trump's
tweet yesterday
14:21about ending all immigration
via executive order.
14:25She was ill and she knew she
needed a fluid transfusion
14:28via IV because of
her nursing training,
14:32but she was repeatedly
denied and she died.
14:36The Otero site is run
by a private company
14:39called Management and
Training Corporation.
14:42They might as well
have just called
14:43it Evil Corp. According
to a recent report by ACLU
14:47of New Mexico, the Santa
Fe Dreamers Project and Las
14:50Americas Immigrant Advocacy
Center, at this site,
14:54LGBTQ migrants
systematically suffer quote,
14:57"inadequate medical
care, retaliation,
15:00and unlawful use of
solitary confinement,
15:03and rampant sexual harassment,
discrimination, and abuse."
15:11However, I want
to emphasize here
15:15that the violent erasure of
trans and gender nonconforming
15:18people isn't at all new.
15:21Not something that could be--
15:23it wasn't something that was
created by the millimeter wave
15:25scanner or by the Trump
administration's policies.
15:29It's something that's been
happening for hundreds of years
15:31under the ongoing project of
racialized settler colonialism.
15:36Cisnormativity was imposed
upon Indigenous peoples
15:39throughout the Americas
and around the world
15:42through hundreds of
years of violence
15:44both spectacular and every day.
15:46Two-spirit scholars
and activists
15:49like [INAUDIBLE]
are systematically
15:51recovering these histories
of two-spirit peoples.
15:55And this is an image of Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa in 1513 having
16:00his dogs devour 40 third gender
people from the Quarequa people
16:06in what is present day
Panama who he read as men
16:10in women's clothing.
16:11And as diabolical
because he couldn't
16:15understand the possibility
of other genders.
16:21So by grounding our
analysis of cisnormativity
16:26in thinking about the long
arc of colonial violence,
16:30I want to make it
clear that I'm not
16:31an advocate of a quote,
"technical solution"
16:34to the problems with
millimeter wave scanners.
16:37So I'm not asking for them
to be less biased, more
16:40inclusive of trans and
gender nonconforming people,
16:44more fair and transparent.
16:47Simple inclusion or
fixing the anomaly
16:52doesn't get at the underlying
historical and structural
16:56And I would say
that's an insight that
16:57applies across many types of
algorithmic decision making.
17:01We can get into that later.
17:03But so it's highly contextual.
17:06More inclusion isn't
always the answer.
17:09It depends on what the
systems are being used to do.
17:12So instead, I'm asking us to
think as designers, as artists,
17:18as technologists
and researchers,
17:20as community organizers, and
just as empathic human beings,
17:24about how to build a world where
millimeter wave scanners don't
17:28Where they like other
border technologies
17:30and carceral systems and
the violence of empire
17:33have been abolished.
17:35So like Harsha Walia, I'm
interested in undoing border
17:40And I'm interested in
dismantling what Ruha Benjamin
17:43calls the New Jim Code--
17:45discriminatory design that
amplifies racial hierarchies
17:48through engineered inequity,
default discrimination,
17:52coded exposure, and
techno benevolence.
17:55Ruha calls out how
technology design so often
17:59ignores but thereby
replicates social divisions.
18:02Or aims to quote,
"fix racial bias"
18:05but ultimately reproduces it.
18:08And I actually I had a
Twitter thread last week
18:12that was in a similar vein
looking at the Massachusetts
18:17Crisis Standards of
Care, which basically
18:21have a point-scoring
system for access
18:24to lifesaving technology.
18:26And a whole network
of healthcare workers
18:30have been fighting
against the implementation
18:32of those standards of
care because they pretend
18:34to be colorblind and based
only on biological factors
18:39in determining who's going
to get access to respirators.
18:42And by doing so,
they're ignoring
18:45structural and ongoing racial
and class-based disparity
18:49in terms of
preexisting conditions
18:52that reduce people's
likelihood of survival,
18:56and therefore reduce their score
on a decision-making system
19:02that's supposed
to decide who gets
19:04access first to respirators.
19:07So in other words,
color blindness
19:09in this case, literally means
that Black and Brown people
19:13will die at higher rates.
19:16So I'm interested in carceral
design, in decolonizing design,
19:21and in design justice.
19:28What is design justice?
19:30So I've talked about
how design justice is
19:33about the relationship between
sociotechnical systems design
19:38And it's also about this
growing community of designers,
19:41and developers, and
artists, and researchers,
19:44and community organizers,
and many others who
19:47are interested in building
the discourse and the theory
19:50and practice of design
justice together.
19:55But I'll share a little
bit about the way
19:57that I talk about design justice
in the book in particular.
20:01So I talk about design
justice as a framework
20:05for analysis of how the design
of sociotechnical systems
20:08influences the
distribution of benefits
20:11and burdens between
various groups of people.
20:15And I also talk about how
design justice explicitly
20:19names and focuses on
how design can reproduce
20:23and/or challenge what Black
feminist scholar Patricia Hill
20:26Collins calls the
matrix of domination--
20:29white supremacy,
heteropatriarchy, capitalism,
20:33ableism, settler,
colonialism, and other forms
20:36of structural inequality.
20:41Black feminist thought
fundamentally reconceptualize
20:44as race, class, and gender
as interlocking systems.
20:49So they don't only
operate on their own.
20:51They're often
experienced together
20:53by individuals who exist
at their intersections.
20:56And the analytical
framework built
20:58on that fundamental insight
is called intersectionality.
21:02The idea has a very long legacy.
21:04So you could think of
African-American abolitionist
21:07and women's rights activist
Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I
21:11Communist Party
Secretary Claudia Jones's
21:13writings about being
triply oppressed.
21:16Or the Combahee
River Collectives
21:18critiques of white feminism
that were articulated not far
21:21from here in the Boston area.
21:23But the specific term
intersectionality was first
21:27published by Black feminist,
legal scholar kimberlé Crenshaw
21:30in her 1989 article
Demarginalizing
21:33the Intersections
of Race and Sex--
21:35A Black Feminist Critique of
Antidiscrimination Doctrine,
21:38Feminist Theory, and
Antiracist Politics.
21:42And in that article,
Crenshaw described
21:44how existing anti-discrimination
law, specifically Title VII
21:48of the Civil Rights
Act repeatedly failed
21:51to protect Black women workers.
21:55That article is also about
statistical analysis.
21:59And I highly recommend
if you haven't
22:02read that original article,
definitely look at it.
22:07She explores in
really powerful ways
22:11how cases were constantly being
thrown out or interpreted based
22:17on the lack of statistical
evidence around Black women's
22:22experience in particular
because employers would offer
22:26countering statistics where
they would lump together
22:30all Black people, not
disaggregate the data,
22:35and so on and so forth.
22:36So it's really, really
worth looking at closely
22:38as we have conversations today
about discriminatory design
22:44and racial and gender bias in
algorithmic-decision-support
22:50So design justice is
asking us to consider
22:54how universalist design
principles and practices erase
22:58certain groups of
people, specifically
23:01those who are
intersectionaly disadvantaged
23:03or multiple burdened under white
supremacist, heteropatriarchy,
23:07capitalism, and
settler colonialism.
23:10Because when
designers do consider
23:11inequality in either
perceptability and availability
23:15of design affordances, or
the distribution of designs
23:18benefits and burdens,
very often that's
23:21through a single-access
framework.
23:24Most design processes
today are therefore
23:26structured in ways that make
it impossible to see, engage
23:29with, account for, or remedy
the unequal distribution
23:33of benefits and burdens.
23:35So in other words,
designers might say,
23:38let's make sure
that this doesn't
23:40disadvantage women versus men.
23:43Or they might say,
let's make sure
23:45that this sensing technology
functions at similar error
23:50rates on darker skin tones
or lighter skin tones.
23:54But typically, we're not looking
at how those things intersect
23:59to shape the distribution
of benefits and burdens.
24:05So as Crenshaw notes, feminist
theory and anti-racist policy
24:09that's not grounded in an
intersectional understanding
24:12of gender and race can
never adequately address
24:15the experiences of
Black women when
24:17it comes to the formulation
of policy demands.
24:20And design justice holds
that the same is true when
24:23it comes to design finance.
24:24So without an
intersectional analysis,
24:27we can't design objects,
or systems, or buildings
24:33that adequately address
the experiences of people
24:36preburdened within the
matrix of domination.
24:42I'll say a little bit more
about the matrix of domination
24:44before we open it
to Q&A. So this
24:48is a term developed by a Black
feminist scholar, sociologist,
24:52and past president of
the American Sociological
24:55Association, Patricia
Hill Collins.
24:57And it refers to race, class,
and gender as interlocking
25:00systems of oppression.
25:01It's a conceptual
model that helps
25:03us think about how power,
oppression, resistance,
25:06privilege, penalties, benefits,
and harms are systematically
25:11And when she introduces the
term in her book Black Feminist
25:14Thought, Collins emphasizes
race, class, and gender
25:18as the three systems
that historically
25:20have been the most important in
structuring most Black women's
25:24And she notes that additional
systems of oppression
25:27structure the
matrix of domination
25:28for other kinds of people.
25:30So the term for her
describes a mode of analysis
25:33that includes any and
all systems of oppression
25:36that mutually constitute each
other and shape our lives.
25:42And this framework
also emphasizes
25:44that every individual
simultaneously
25:46receives both benefits and harms
or penalty and privilege based
25:50on our location within
the interlocking
25:53systems of oppression.
25:54So an intersectional
Black feminist analysis
25:57can help us each see
that we're simultaneously
25:59members of multiple
dominant groups
26:02and multiple subordinate groups.
26:04So design justice
urges us to consider
26:06how design simultaneously
distributes both penalty
26:10and privilege to individuals
based on our location
26:14within the matrix of
domination and to attend
26:17to the ways that operates
at various scales, personal,
26:20community, and institutional.
26:26So we could think, for
example, about the way
26:28that technology design
or interface design
26:31is related to domination
and resistance
26:33so at those three levels.
26:35At the personal level, for
example, interface design
26:39might affirm or deny
a person's identity
26:42through features like a
binary gender dropdown
26:44during a profile creation.
26:48So you could think about all the
times you've created an account
26:51and what are the options
that you could do for gender.
26:53And these seemingly
small design decisions
26:56ultimately play out in
the disparate impacts
26:59they have on different
individuals, biographies,
27:03At the community
level, platform design
27:06fosters certain
types of communities
27:08while suppressing others
through the setting
27:11and implementing of
community guidelines, rules,
27:15And that's instantiated
through different types
27:17of content moderation systems.
27:19There's a lot of great scholarly
attention happening now
27:22to content moderation
and how it works
27:25and who the workers
are and so on.
27:28At the institutional level, if
we zoom out a little further,
27:31design justice would
ask us to consider
27:33the role of various institutions
that control and shape
27:36design processes, such as
companies like Google, Apple,
27:39or Microsoft, venture
capitalists, nation states that
27:43decide what kinds of design
to prioritize through research
27:47And that's often
military technology,
27:50artificial intelligence.
27:52Now we're seeing a big
investment of course
27:54in research funding to try and
deal with the current pandemic.
28:01We could also think
about how this is all
28:03operating in standard
settings bodies
28:04like the International
Standards Organization, the W3C,
28:09or the National Institute
of Standards and Technology.
28:12Or through law such
as in the Americans
28:14with Disabilities
Act, and so on.
28:20Additionally, these
institutions and others
28:22often design objects and
systems and processes
28:25that are used to
distribute benefits
28:27and harms across society.
28:29So for example, apropos
of Trump's announcement,
28:34he's going to use an
executive order to block
28:36all immigration to the US.
28:39We could look at how the ability
to immigrate to the United
28:43States is unequally
equally distributed
28:46between different
groups of people
28:47through laws passed
by the US Congress,
28:50software-decision systems,
executive orders that
28:54influence enforcement
priorities, and so on.
28:58And here's an example
of interface design
29:03for visa applications.
29:07And it's not that long ago
that the US DHS announced
29:11that they would be gathering
social media and email
29:14data on all visa applicants.
29:17And this is an actual
screenshot of the dropdown
29:19menu for applying for
a visa through DHS.
29:23They ask you to tell them
about the social media profiles
29:30Definitely want to make
sure that we tell them
29:32about our Myspace
profiles, that's very, very
29:36important for US
immigration prioritization
29:40to be able to see
our Myspace accounts.
29:44And of course, there
was-- as a side note,
29:47there was a federal
bidding process
29:50to create an automated system
to analyze people's profiles
29:54on social media and
categorize people
29:56into good immigrants or bad
immigrants classification.
30:00But they realized halfway
through the bidding process
30:03that that wasn't going to work.
30:05They also faced a big
pushback from immigrant rights
30:07organizations that said
this is a horrible idea.
30:10But they did still
spend the money,
30:11but they used it to
hire around 200 people
30:16to read through
people's social media
30:19accounts who are
applying for visas
30:21and make a human-powered
determination
30:24about whether they
should be classified
30:26as a good immigrant
or a bad immigrant.
30:28So all that is to say
that visa application is
30:33an algorithm designed
according to the ideology
30:35and priorities of those
who hold political power
30:38but also who hold design power.
30:47Now, finally, I'm going to
end this portion of the talk
30:50so that we can get into the
conversation for the last 20
30:53minutes by emphasizing again
that design justice isn't just
30:57a theoretical framework.
30:58It's also a growing
community of practice
31:00that is focusing
on the equitable
31:02distribution of designs's
benefits and burdens,
31:05meaningful participation
in design decisions,
31:08and recognition of
community-based, Indigenous
31:11and diasporic design traditions,
knowledge, and practices.
31:15And it came out of
a community there
31:19would be no design
theory or practice
31:21or book without the Design
Justice Network organizers,
31:24especially Una Lee, Victoria
Barnett, West Taylor, Carlos
31:29Garcia, [INAUDIBLE],, Danielle
Albert, Victor Moore, Ebony
31:35Dumas, Danielle Ohm,
and many, many others.
31:39So these are all
design practitioners
31:41who are participating
in and working
31:43with social movements and
community-based organizations
31:46across the US and
around the world.
31:48And of course, there are
many overlapping communities
31:51of practice that are doing this
work besides the Design Justice
31:56So you could think of the
Decolonizing Design group.
31:59Data feminists like Catherine
Ignacio and Lauren Klein,
32:03who also have a new book with
MIT Press which is phenomenal.
32:07Afrofuturist speculative design
like Alondra Nelson's work.
32:11Designs for the Pluriverse
like Arturo Escobar's work
32:14and many, many more.
32:16But in the book,
I talk about some
32:18of these other
practitioners, but I really
32:20focus on work that's come
out of the Design Justice
32:23Network coming out of the
Allied Media Conference.
32:29And so I just will
conclude by this
32:34is an image of
the Design Justice
32:36Network at the Allied Media
Conference meeting together
32:43or maybe this image is from
2017 to think about the Design
32:46Justice Principles, which
is a set of principles
32:49that guide the work of the
Design Justice Network.
32:54And considering a set of
fundamental questions,
32:58core questions like
in any design process.
33:03And who was benefited?
33:05Or thinking together about how
design benefits are distributed
33:10often unequally more to
the more powerful and less
33:15to the less powerful.
33:16Or how design harms
are often distributed
33:19so that most of
them fall on those
33:22who are less powerful within
that matrix of domination.
33:25And so together we've
been developing workshops,
33:28a series of zines, local nodes
of Design Justice practitioners
33:32who meet in different locations
around the US and Canada
33:36and also in the Mediterranean
region, and Singapore,
33:39and around the world.
33:41And we are guided together
by the set of principles
33:45that we developed
over a couple of years
33:47that have now been signed
by several hundred design
33:52And I'll just conclude this
by sharing those results
33:55and then we'll get into the Q&A.
33:57So there's 10 of them.
34:02Principle one, we use design
to sustain, heal, and empower
34:05our communities
and seek liberation
34:08from exploitative and
oppressive systems.
34:12We center the
voices of those who
34:14are directly impacted by the
outcomes of design processes.
34:20We prioritize design's
impact on the community
34:22over the intentions
of the designer
34:24because we know where good
intentions lead when they don't
34:29have accountability mechanisms.
34:32We view change as emergent from
an accountable, accessible,
34:36and collaborative process,
rather than as only a point
34:39at the end of the process.
34:42We see the role of a
designer as a facilitator
34:45rather than an expert.
34:49And we believe that
everyone is an expert based
34:51on their own lived experience.
34:53And we all have unique and
brilliant contributions
34:55to bring to design processes.
35:00We share design knowledge and
tools with our communities,
35:05rather than always hoarding
them and positioning ourselves
35:12We work towards sustainable,
community-led and controlled
35:15outcomes, rather than
parachute and solutionism.
35:22We work towards nonexploitative
solutions that reconnect us
35:25to the Earth and to each other.
35:28And finally, before seeking
new design solutions,
35:32we look for what's already
working at the community level.
35:35We honor and uplift traditional,
Indigenous, and local knowledge
35:41So those are the 10
principles that we work by.
35:44You can sign on to them at
designjustice.org/principles
35:50or at this link too.
35:56That concludes the
talking at you portion.
35:58And let's use the rest of
the time for a conversation.
36:05Thank you so much, Sasha.
36:08If anyone has a question
I've put directions
36:10on how to use the Q&A feature.
36:12It should be at the
bottom of your screen.
36:15And I know we already
have a few questions.
36:17But if anybody else
has a question,
36:19go ahead and input it.
36:21We may not have time
for all the questions,
36:23but we'll try to get to as
many as we can in the next 15
36:28And again, Sasha,
thank you so much.
36:30You did a great job.
36:31Sorry for the
slight interruption.
36:33I wanted to make sure
everyone could hear you.
36:35But I think that these are
really important topics for us
36:40And I'm glad that we have this
audience who's demonstrated
36:44an interest in the topic.
36:45So good on you guys
for joining us today.
36:52All right, so we
have some questions.
36:57All right, so our first
question is from Dan Turner.
37:01And Dan Turner says,
thanks for the talk.
37:05I'm excited to start
reading the book, which
37:07is almost within arm's reach.
37:09And it's good to hear from
my own neighborhood, Central
37:13I'm in a fairly
privileged group,
37:15so I'm trying to keep
learning as I try to work
37:17on public-good projects.
37:20Curious about your take
on codesign, especially
37:24Ezio Manzini's take,
also an MIT Press book.
37:29Thanks for the plug, Dan.
37:32Yeah, thanks Dan
for that question.
37:36Yeah, I'm a fan of that work.
37:39I actually just had
a chance to meet Ezio
37:43not that long ago at a design
workshop event in New York
37:49And I definitely am influenced
by codesign as an approach.
37:54In the book Design
Justice I talk a lot
37:56about through the long history
of different traditions
38:00in design theory and practice
of thinking about how to include
38:04community in design processes.
38:07I myself have taught a
Codesign Studio at MIT
38:12for MIT undergraduate
and graduate students
38:14and for community
members since 2012.
38:20So I definitely-- it's
an approach that's
38:22influential for me
personally, so I
38:25support reading that and my
work is in dialogue with that.
38:29I think part of the question
that many people in the Design
38:35Justice Network
have around codesign
38:39is that it's sort of like
the devil is in the details.
38:42So approaches like codesign
and human-centric design
38:48and to a lesser extent
PD, participatory Design,
38:52have at this point,
increasingly been taken up
38:56by highly professionalized
design industry working
39:00to produce new products with
multinational capitalist firms
39:06And there's a way in which
a lot of the techniques
39:09from approaches like
codesign have been
39:13used for extractive processes.
39:16So you gather a community,
you include them
39:19at a certain stage of
the design process,
39:22but ultimately, that can end up
being about finding some ideas
39:26and taking them away
to produce a product
39:29to sell back to people
who don't receive
39:32either monetary rewards or even
credit for their participation
39:38I'm not saying that's
what Ezio is promoting
39:41or what codesign
needs to look like.
39:43But I think that it
often can in part
39:45because it doesn't explicitly
name the systems of oppression
39:49that we're trying to
transform and overturn.
39:51So that would be a short
answer to a little bit
39:54of the difference, is that
we have to really start
39:57digging in and getting
specific about what
39:59is it that we're challenging?
40:00How are we going
to dismantle them,
40:03Which as Ruha Benjamin
talks about technology, how
40:07are we going to dismantle
that through design processes
40:10How are we going to dismantle
cisnormativity and gender
40:13inequality and oppression?
40:15How does that show up in the
different stages of a design
40:23We have another question.
40:24This one's a bit complex.
40:25Given that design thinking has
become a largely performative
40:29undertaking in which designers
quote unquote, "other
40:33themselves into the position
of what's being designed,"
40:37how can we shift
the process of world
40:40building itself to
be more equitable?
40:46Yeah, I think, so
I have a section
40:48in the book that addresses
this question, which is--
40:52well, several
sections in the book
40:56where I talk about personas and
the idea of empathy and design
41:05And I think that it's not
that empathy is a bad thing
41:07and it's not that I am always
opposed to the use of personas
41:11in design processes,
but I think this
41:13is related to this question.
41:15There is a lot of ways in
which people imagine or pretend
41:20that through
brief-thought exercises
41:22they can put themselves in
the shoes of an other subject
41:26for whom they're designing.
41:28But unfortunately,
in the worst case,
41:30that type of persona process
is really just redefining
41:35stereotypes or
assumptions that you
41:37may have about a group of
people whose lived experience
41:41And so then all you've done
is created a paper user based
41:47on your own ideas
that were shaped
41:49by your own lived experience
and the media ecology
41:52that we live in and
so on and so forth.
41:55And then you design
around those.
41:56An alternative to
that is to partner
41:59with community-based
organizations that
42:02have history, and
recognition, and deep ties
42:05and accountability to
community that you might not
42:09have lived experience
with and work
42:11with them from the
beginning through all stages
42:15of the design process.
42:16And that involves
finding resources
42:18to support community
organizations to participate
42:22in a design process.
42:23So for example, say
you are writing a grant
42:26or negotiating with a
client about creating
42:29a budget for a
design project, you
42:32might want to include
line items for ensuring
42:35that you can pay people from
a community organization
42:39to participate throughout
the process to even
42:41be product owners or true
codesigners with you,
42:45rather than just brief
interviews, extract a persona,
42:50and build it that way.
42:55Our next question is
a little bit simpler.
42:57Can you give some examples
where good design--
43:02can you give some examples where
good Design Justice Principles
43:09Sure, I think, so we're
trying to gather and publish
43:13through the Design
Justice Network
43:16more examples of the
principles in practice.
43:19And I would really
encourage people
43:21to take a look at
designjustice.org, which
43:24is the site of the
network, where we're
43:26gathering that type of stuff.
43:28And look, for example, at
the work of And Also Too
43:34which is a design studio
run by Una Lee, who's
43:36one of the cofounders of
the Design Justice Network
43:39and part of the steering
committee of the network,
43:41where they talk about the
series of graphic novels
43:47that they produce
in collaboration
43:53First Nations youth
organizers which are around--
43:57I think they're
around health equity,
43:59but I'm not sure if the
whole series is that way
44:04or if that's one
of the additions.
44:05But she does a really great
job of producing a case
44:09study talking about how her shop
works together with these youth
44:14organizations to
produce, and then
44:17design, and layout,
and distribute
44:20these visual
narrative materials.
44:24And we're trying to start
producing more regular stories
44:30about the work
across the network.
44:31You could also look at
the Design Justice Network
44:33zines that also include some
stories about Design Justice
44:38work and practice on the ground.
44:39And there are examples from
architecture, graphic design,
44:44and software interface design.
44:52I'm trying to pick which
question to ask next
44:55because there are so many.
45:10How do you define justice
and has your research
45:14in design justice transformed
your understanding of what
45:17Justice is and how so?
45:24So for me, and I think I'm not--
45:30my approach to
thinking about justice
45:34is less focused on the
political philosophy, history,
45:39and trajectory of the term,
and all the different ways
45:42that it can be defined.
45:44I'm interested in
justice as a concept
45:47that comes out of social
movement work and organizing
45:53And so for example, if you
think about the emergence
45:56of the environmental justice
movement as a response that
46:01emphasizes what are the
disparate impacts of ecological
46:07devastation on communities
of color and low-income
46:10communities against a mainstream
largely white and the middle
46:14class environmentalist
discourse,
46:17it's about we're breaking
the environment and we have
46:26environmental justice
says, well, yes, we
46:28need to change
that and also need
46:30to understand how say
air pollution is causing
46:34early death and higher and
disproportionate rates of lung
46:39conditions in communities
of color that are sited
46:42near highly-polluting industry.
46:45So it's adding a
layer of complexity
46:48and a specific racial justice
and class-justice analysis
46:53on disparate impacts.
46:54And I think that
design justice is
46:56trying to do something similar
for design of the new practice.
47:00So shorter version
of that, I think,
47:02is that to me justice
is about thinking
47:05about the distribution
of benefits and burdens
47:08between different groups of
people who occupy positions
47:12within that matrix of domination
of race, class, gender,
47:17Because those are large-scale
structures that we know
47:23have been both shaped
by history and then
47:25shape people's life chances.
47:27Like what you get
to do in your life?
47:30How long do you live?
47:31How likely are you to die early
from preventable diseases?
47:37How likely are you going
to be to get access
47:40to that ventilator under the
new Crisis Standards of Care?
47:44So I think that
I'm also influenced
47:47a lot by Amartya Sen's
human capabilities approach.
47:52So thinking about how
are our capabilities
47:55supported or constrained
by larger forces,
48:00as well as by
everyday interactions
48:02and by sociotechnical systems.
48:04So justice to me is about
distribution of chances,
48:08but it's also about process.
48:11So yeah, I'm interested in
procedural justice as well.
48:15Was it fair really
where people who
48:20are going to be directly
impacted by this thing
48:23that we're building,
did they get
48:25to participate in the
decision-making process or not.
48:28And then at the
end of the day, how
48:30did this new thing that we made
distribute benefits and burdens
48:38So we have a question
from Sarah Rodriguez.
48:42How can people who might
be considered gatekeepers
48:45create bridges between
systems and individuals
48:49or support the inclusion of
community work and systems?
48:56Yeah, that's a great question.
48:59I think that
personally I have tried
49:03to find ways to leverage
the position of privilege
49:08that I occupy as a
person who's raised
49:13white under the logic
of racial capitalism,
49:16as a person who has
educational privilege
49:19and institutional access.
49:20I've tried to do my best to
leverage that to get access
49:25to resources both
money and visibility
49:30for the different types
of community partners
49:32that I work with in design
projects and processes.
49:36And I try and teach my students
how to do that as well.
49:40So for example,
when I write grants,
49:46I push really hard on the
funders for the budget
49:51to include significant
line items to pay community
49:55organizers from the
organizations that are going
49:58to be partners to be able
to really hold the process,
50:03and be part of it deeply, and
then to hopefully own whatever
50:08it is that we make at the end.
50:11I work to try and
push back on the press
50:16when the press tries to reduce
projects that I'm involved in
50:19and say, Sasha created
this thing or MIT
50:24I'll have a lot
of conversations,
50:26back channels with
journalists and be like, hey,
50:29you really need to emphasize
that this project was
50:31led by this community partner.
50:33This is where this
work comes out of.
50:35That's not always successful
and that's never perfect.
50:39But those are some examples
of specific actions
50:42that I think people who
are gatekeepers or have--
50:48all of us have
power and privilege
50:50in some way relative to
others, and so it's always
50:53about thinking about how we can
use that effectively to move
50:56together towards liberation.
50:59And those are some examples of
ways that I try and do that.
51:07As I mentioned before, the
questions keep coming in.
51:10So I don't think
we will have time
51:13to answer all the questions
that have been asked today
51:17since it is 1:30 right now.
51:20Is there somewhere where people
can send questions or engage
51:24with you on these topics
at some point, Sasha?
51:30So I'm pretty active
on Twitter so you can--
51:35if you're on Twitter you
can message me there @schock
51:40@S-C-H-O-C-K. You could
also get involved,
51:44with the Design Justice Network.
51:46So go to
designjustice.org, and you
51:48can learn about the different
communication channels
51:51So we have a couple
of mailing lists.
51:54And we have a chat system.
51:57And we also have local Design
Justice groups meeting up
52:01where you can get together
and talk about these questions
52:05I also personally have a couple
other conversational events
52:10coming up on Sunday.
52:14So this Sunday
already, I think it is.
52:18Let me double check that.
52:19Yeah, so this Sunday
at 2:00 PM Eastern,
52:23I'm going to be having a
Twitter book chat organized
52:27by the AI Ethics group.
52:30So you can use the
hashtag #AIethics.
52:35And that's at 2:00 PM
this Sunday, the 26th.
52:39And then on Wednesday
the 29th, I will--
52:47here's an Eventbrite link.
52:49I'll be doing a conversation
with Data & Society,
52:54the research Institute
based in New York.
52:56It's called the Databite.
52:57And I'm going to
be in conversation
53:00with Rigoberto la [? da ?]
Guzman also about the book.
53:05So you can catch me there.
53:08And I'm putting the link in
the chat to that Eventbrite.
53:16I'm tempted to click
on it right now,
53:18but I have to wrap this up.
53:21Thanks again so much Sasha.
53:23It was a great talk.
53:25All the links of everything we
talked about are in the chat
53:29if you want to find them now.
53:31We'll also be including
them in the blog post
53:33that we publish later
this week that will also
53:37include the video of this.
53:39So if you missed the beginning,
if you want to go over it,
53:41if you need a little extra
time absorbing everything,
53:46we will have a video
available online on our blog.
53:50And if you want to
find the book you
53:51can always go to
mitpress.mit.edu.
53:56And again, to engage more with
the examples of Design Justice,
54:01you can visit the website
designjustice.org as well.
54:05And again, we have a lot of
other links there in the chat.
54:08But if we have
some time, I would
54:11like to see if our
representative from AIGA Boston
54:16has anything that
they want to add.
54:23So I just wanted to give a
quick first thanks to MIT Press
54:28for cosponsoring this with us.
54:32And then I just wanted
to give a shout out
54:35about the benefits of
membership with AIGA Boston.
54:40We run a lot of events
on design skills,
54:42professional development.
54:43We host portfolio
reviews, et cetera.
54:46And becoming a
member is a great way
54:50to get involved and
especially if you're
54:53going to be attending more
than three AIGA events a year.
54:57And we're a volunteer-run
organization
54:59and we're always looking
for volunteer support.
55:01If you're interested
in getting involved,
55:03there are a variety of
open volunteer positions.
55:06We also welcome
comments and suggestions
55:08for future programming via the
contact us link on our website.
55:12And I know that the
link is in the chat.
55:18Thanks so much
for sharing, Jess.
55:20And Sasha, do you
have anything else you
55:22want to say before we wrap up?
55:26Just thanks, Hanna and
everyone at MIT Press.
55:29And thanks Jess
from AIGA Boston.
55:31And thank you to everybody
who joined the talk
55:33and put such amazing
questions into the Q&A.
55:38I am going to look at
those a lot more closely,
55:40and hopefully,
we'll get a chance
55:42to talk about it at one of
the other upcoming events.
55:47I'm sure we'll have
many in the future.
55:52And if anybody wants to attend
another MIT Press live session,
55:57we have another one
coming up next week
55:59with Stefan Van der Stigchel,
author of Concentration.
56:04So same time same
day of the week.
56:08And if you want to
learn more, you can go
56:10to
mitpress.mit.edu/mitpresslive.
56:16And again, if you want to find
the book that we talked about
56:19today, you can also go
to mitpress.mit.edu,
56:23and look for Design Justice.
56:26And thank you all for attending.
56:27We had a great
turnout today, and I'm
56:29glad that we were able
to discuss this topic.
56:34I'll see you later, Sasha.
