Research as intervention: navigating ethical inclusion, solidarity, and activism in data justice research

Amidst growing evidence of the harms caused by ubiquitous datafication, research focused on data politics is now intersecting in meaningful ways with broader struggles for social justice. For some researchers, these politics form the backdrop of social inquiry. For others, research is a way of intervening in these politics, to create new agendas for data justice, often through sustained engagement with community organising and activism. This approach to research problematises the notion of the dispassionate scholar, who merely observes and analyses the objects of their critique. Instead, it commits researchers to a specific praxis of solidarity with the people and communities most directly affected by the harms and oppressions of datafication.

Panellists: Joanna Redden, Data Justice Lab/University of Western Ontario; Jackie Leach Scully, Disability Innovation Institute, ADM+S/ UNSW; Meg Young, Data and Society; Zahra Stardust, ADM+S/Queensland University of Technology; Anjalee de Silva, ADM+S/University of Melbourne.

Chair: Georgia van Toorn (UNSW, ADM+S)