Not-Equal Summer School
Social Justice and the Digital Economy
7-11 June 2021

The UKRI-funded Not-Equal Network+ Summer School aims to equip the next generation of researchers with tools to help create the conditions to support social justice in the Digital Economy.

Over four days you will work in teams to explore emerging and existing technology, looking at how conditions affect what we understand as power and social justice. This will offer you the conceptual and practical tools to help ask difficult questions around system change, power structures and inequities in our digital societies.

The summer school includes a programme of talks, workshops and panel sessions with leading academic in HCI, Design & Computer Science and more, across four themes:

  • The Evolution of Social Justice in the Age of Digital Networks and Machine Learning
  • Equitable Digital Economies
  • Making Data Work for Social Justice
  • Stories from our Socially Just Digital Futures

There will also be solidarity clinics on ethics and activism aimed to help you advocate for social change and navigate different contexts and power relations when engaging with communities, institutions, funders and industry.

 

Programme of activities. 

Monday 7 June 

18:00 – 19:45: Opening webinar session

The Evolution of Social Justice in the Age of Digital Networks and Machine Learning

Keynote Speakers

  • Dr. Michael Muller, Research and Master Inventor, IBM
  • Prof Irina Shklovski, University of Copenhagen
  • Prof Lorna McGregor, Human Rights Centre, Essex University 

Tuesday 8 June  

09:30 – 10:00:  Introduction to the Summer School

  • Prof Ann Light, University of Sussex
  • Dr Clara Crivellaro, Newcastle University

10:00 – 12:00: Workshop 

Mapping social (in)justice in the Digital Economy
Workshop leader: Dr Cally Gatehouse, Northumbria University 

12:00 – 14:00: Lunch Break 

14:00 – 16:00: Workshop

Exploring systems change & radical inclusion
Workshop leaders: Ruth Catlow and Cade Diehm, Furtherfield

18:00 – 19:30: Webinar Panel Session

Equitable Digital Economies

Panel Speakers 

  • Dr Tawanna Dillahunt, University of Michigan’s School of Information (UMSI)
  • Dr Pitso Tsibolane, University of Cape Town
  • Prof Ann Light, University of Sussex
  • Dr Maurizio Teli, Alborg University
  • Ruth Catlow, Furtherfield 

Wednesday 9 June 

10:00 – 12:00: Workshop 

Creating & Sustaining Digital Commons
Workshop leaders: Dr Maurizio Teli, Aalborg University
Dr Andrea Botero, Academy Research Fellow, Aalto University 

12:00 – 14:00: Lunch Break 

14:00 – 16:00: Workshop

Strategies for Building Equity in Collaborations
Workshop leaders: Dr Maurizio Teli, Aalborg University
Dr Andrea Botero, Academy Research Fellow, Aalto University

18:00 – 19:30: Webinar Session

Making Data Work for Social Justice

Keynote Speakers

  • Prof Catherine D’Ignazio, MIT
  • Giselle Cory, DataKind UK

Thursday 10 June

10:00 – 12:00: Workshop 

Solidarity Clinic for Ethical Practices
Workshop leaders:
Dr Angelika Strohmayer, Northumbria University
Dr Vasilis Vlachokyriakos, Newcastle University
Prof Ann Light, University of Sussex
Dr Clara Crivellaro, Newcastle University

12:00 – 14:00: Lunch

14:00 – 16:00: Workshop 

Collective intelligence for Human Rights
Workshop leader: Prof Yvonne Mc Dermott Rees, Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University and Friedhelm Weinberg, HURIDOCS

18:00 – 19:30: Webinar Session

Stories from Our Socially Just Digital Futures

Keynote Speakers

  • Dr Carl Di Salvo, Georgia Institute of Technology 
  • Al Robertson, Fiction Writer
  • Sarah Naomi Lee, Plenty Productions 

Friday 11 June  

10:00 – 12:00: Workshop 

Design Fictions for Social Justice
Workshops leader: Dr Joe Lindley, Lancaster University and Miriam Sturdee, Lancaster University

12:00 – 14:00: Lunch 

14:00 – 16:00:  Workshop 

Design Fictions for Social Justice
Workshops leader: Dr Joe Lindley, Lancaster University and Miriam Sturdee, Lancaster University

16:00 – 16:30: Wrapping up

Prof Ann Light, University of Sussex
Dr Clara Crivellaro, Newcastle University