DDRIG: The Ethical Practices and Sociotechnical Imaginaries of Tech-for-Good

这项民族志研究考察了难民技术倡议，重点关注参与开发、部署和使用各种应用程序和数字平台的行为者，这些应用程序和数字平台解决了流离失所者面临的挑战。我们的目标是将“技术为善”理解为一种努力，通过经验性地参与人们在跨国移民背景下开发和部署此类技术的道德想象和实践。在针对大型科技公司的丑闻和诉讼之后，人们普遍认识到高科技并不一定等于进步和积极的变化，因此有必要了解本研究中探索的替代技术想象和道德实践。该项目的结果将为未来的技术人员提供对不同技术想象的有价值的见解。数据将通过在线数据共享平台“实验和协作人种学平台”公开提供。更具体地说，该项目侧重于以下研究问题：在移民和流离失所的背景下，“技术为善”倡议的不同伦理想象是什么？在“科技为善”计划的发展、启动、推出和持续部署过程中，不同的参与者如何实践道德关系？研究人员将通过分析媒体和宣传材料，以及数字文物本身，以及观察实践的民族志，以及探讨演员“技术为善”倡议背后的道德想象的访谈，来解决这些问题。通过参与不稳定和跨国空间（而不是硅谷公司或类似的精英技术空间）的此类倡议，该项目将探索“技术为善”从业者发展和批判性评估技术可能性的不同方式，从而有助于我们理解实践中的技术伦理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This ethnographic study examines refugee tech initiatives with a focus on the actors involved in developing, deploying, and making use of various apps and digital platforms that address the challenges facing displaced people. The goal is to understand "tech-for-good" as an endeavor by empirically engaging with the ethical imaginaries and practices of the people developing and deploying such technologies in the context of transnational migration. In the wake of scandals and lawsuits against big tech companies, there is a broad recognition that high tech does not necessarily equal progress and positive change thus it is imperative to understand alternative technical imaginaries and ethical practices explored in this study. This project's results will provide valuable insights into different technical imaginaries for future technologists. Data will be made publicly available through the Platform for Experimental and Collaborative Ethnography, an online data-sharing platform.More specifically, the project focuses on the following research questions: What different ethical imaginaries undergird "tech-for-good" initiatives in the context of migration and displacement? How are ethical relations practiced by different actors in the development, launch, rollout, and continued deployment of "tech-for-good" initiatives? The researchers will address these questions by analyzing the media and promotional materials, as well as the digital artifacts themselves, alongside an ethnography that observes the practices as well as interviews that probe the ethical imaginaries that underlie actors’ "tech-for-good" initiatives. By attending to such initiatives in precarious and transnational spaces (rather than Silicon Valley companies or similarly elite tech spaces), the project will explore different ways "tech-for-good" practitioners develop and critically evaluate technical possibilities and hereby contribute to our understanding of the ethics of technology in practice.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.