This review is from Ashley Laurent Noel-Hirst a first year PhD student at QMUL, part of Centre for Digital Music.
If you have ever wondered why facial recognition software routinely fails black women; ’security’ AI systems increase risk of violence to intersectionally marginalised people; or how defaults in online forms skew university admissions, then you should read this book. If you have never wondered about such things, then you should definitely read this book.
Combining academic rigour with anecdotal grounding and approachable writing, Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock outlines how seemingly harmless design decisions can reflect and reproduce dynamics of power in a tech-centric world. They posit that ‘everyone participates in design’, and provide frameworks for multi-axis analysis of (dis/dys)affordances in contemporary technology. To those who are paid to design, Costanza-Chock invites a re-evaluation of practice.
Thought-provoking, challenging, and inspiring all at once. A necessary read for anyone interested in technology and society.’