Human computer interaction needs plural views on justice
Mapping justice as a plural and contested concept in human--computer interaction
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
Justice means different things to different people, but often technology studies treat it as if it were just one idea. The authors explain six different ways to think about justice drawn from philosophy. They show how these views apply differently to technologies like crime risk scores, food access, neighborhood changes, and robots. They warn that not recognizing these different views can silence important discussions in computer science.
What this means in practice
- •For technology policy makers: Design policies that consider multiple conflicting views of justice in technology regulation and evaluation.
- •For social impact teams: Broaden assessment frameworks for tech projects to reflect diverse justice perspectives, helping avoid overlooking marginalized groups.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Henrik Rydenfelt, Matti Nelimarkka
Abstract
Human-computer interaction increasingly studies and promotes justice. Often, this work does not treat justice through a pluralistic lens Justice, however, is not one thing: political philosophy offers several well-established, mutually incompatible conceptions of it. To navigate these meanings, we draw on a map of justice, a philosophical framework identifying six distinct conceptions of justice situated throughout (Western) philosophical thought. We apply this framework to four cases that illustrate different approaches to social justice: the COMPAS system, food democracy, gentrification, and robotics. Our analysis shows that each case already reflects a position on the map, but more importantly, one might adapt the case to other conceptions as well, leading to very different systems and analyses. We discuss how HCI might engage more carefully with such contested concepts, and warn that without pluralistic understanding, academic discourse risks a spiral of silence.