a roundtable and discussion
Wednesday 16th September, 11am – 1pm (refreshments 1-2pm), John Hansard Gallery , Southampton
Climate justice and tech justice are not only interlinked as intersectional frameworks to address the ecological and social impacts of contemporary technological promises. Reaching more critically as overlaid approaches, they map out the histories of how imperial commands of technology enabled climate change through the subjugation of ecologies, peoples, and their cultures across geographies.
From resource extractions in the colonies, fueling the factories and machines across the British Empire, to the military-industrial-academic complex [1] that bolstered the material and ideological structures [2] of oppression and today’s increase in data centres, technology’s role in the imperial project expanded over time. The centuries-old colonial templates of technology research, development and deployment by states and corporations are part of Big Tech’s global dominance. Entering an extreme digitalisation of everyday life, the climate impacts of today’s technological advancements in big data and AI are increasingly evidenced as the environmental impacts of the industry [3] and their systems’ further exacerbation of social injustices [4].
This tech justice assembly asks how the long and continued history of oppressive uses of technology is deeply intertwined with the making of the climate crisis. As technology is increasingly pedestalled as a tool to either solve climate change or as a justification for the sacrifice of natural resources and human labour and lives, a key aim of the gathering is to focus on several key intersections between climate justice and tech justice and to draw critical attention to the long established, uneven impacts of climate change and datafication on marginalised peoples. We are interested in positions, examples, approaches and critical awareness situated in history and impacting contemporary lives.
References
The Influence Industry Project, Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering 2024
Data & Society, Climate, Technology, and Justice
Mirca Madianou, Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful
The event will take the form of a roundtable that will be started by short provocations from moderators and speakers, including Stephen Cornford, Michael Lomotey and more to be announced later, followed by a discussion with everyone. Refreshments will be available before and after.
RSVP on Luma
The event will be moderated by Angela YT Chan and Alexandra (Sasha) Anikina, collaborators on the project a public infrastructure.
