Technology and social justice

This year technology has taken new steps to redefinesocial justice. From Justhack’s effort to encourage a more inclusive environment for computer science hopefuls (“Coding for community, not corporations,” September 14, online) to the Centre for Gender Advocacy’s online map of places in Montreal where trans people have faced discrimination (“Mapping cissexism,” November 30, page 24). With the rise of social media, technology has become an increasingly important tool in social justice movements around the globe, like #STEM on twitter, drawing attention to marginalized voices in STEM (“#Ilooklikestem,” October 15, page 14). We still have many steps to take in fighting for social justice – and technology will play a pivotal part in that.

These movements have sought to create a diverse and inclusive environment for all science and technology lovers. As a society, we should seek to make the paths of science and technology as accessible as possible – events like Justhack, the research by Johns Hopkins University supporting individualized vaccines (“A movement towards indiviualized vaccines,” January 25, page 13), and creating apps combatting inaccessibility (“Using apps to combat inaccesibility,” September 1, page 14) are just the tip of an iceberg.

Science does not get a free pass from social justice efforts. The scientific community needs to look at how research can play into oppressive power structures. By working toward an anti- oppressive environment, we create opportunities for marginalized individualized to participate more in research and in changing the world.