In this workshop we will:

• Reflect on our personal identities & characteristics and our positionality within social power structures
• Explore data collection practices and the disparate impact of its use in algorithmic decision-making systems
• Examine discriminating systems across society to challenge tech power's inevitability

Image courtesy of Pexels

  This workshop is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Chisholm, A. (2024). Data justice workshop. https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/berks/DataJustice

Using the Flower Power worksheet:

• As a group we will determine the dominant/powerful identities in society (outer petals).
• Individually, write down your personal social identity (inner petals).
• Finally, tally your matches and reflect on how your social identity compares to society's dominant ones.

Get your webcam & headphones ready!

Individually open & play this interactive documentary about face recognition technologies (approximately 8 minutes).

After completing How Normal Am I? answer the following reflection questions anonymously on the Padlet below:

• How did your scores compare to the dominant & social identities we explored with the Power Flower?
• How does this data seem similar or different to traditional demographic data?
• What surprised you most about the inferences made from face recognition data?
• Do you think these practices seem potentially harmful to you? Beneficial to society? Why or why not?

If you are unable to get the interactive documentary to work, feel free to check out one of these alternatives:

In your group, select an article from your assigned discriminating system category. Use the worksheet to guide your case study examination of tech power.

Be prepared to report back to the class on your responses!

Assigned category / topic (select from articles listed below):

• Breakout Group 1 - Criminal Justice
• Breakout Group 2 - Health & Wellness
• Breakout Group 3 - Employment & Labor Force
• Breakout Group 4 - Education
• Breakout Group 5 - Social Services / Government
• Breakout Group 6 - Consumer Privacy

Criminal Justice

Health & Wellness

Employment / Labor Force

Education

Social Services / Government

Consumer Privacy