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举措，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参与者，以解决流离失所者面临的挑战。我们的目标是了解“技术向善”作为一种奋进，通过经验参与的道德规范和实践的人开发和部署这种技术的背景下，跨国移民。在针对大型科技公司的丑闻和诉讼之后，人们广泛认识到高科技不一定等于进步和积极变化，因此必须了解本研究中探索的替代技术规范和道德实践。该项目的结果将为未来的技术人员提供对不同技术领域的宝贵见解。数据将通过实验和协作人种学平台这一在线数据共享平台公开提供，更具体地说，该项目侧重于以下研究问题：在移徙和流离失所的背景下，哪些不同的道德规范支撑着“技术向善”倡议？不同行为者在制定、启动、推出和继续部署“技术向善”倡议时如何实践道德关系？研究人员将通过分析媒体和宣传材料以及数字文物本身来解决这些问题，同时观察实践的民族志以及探索演员“技术为善”倡议背后的道德规范的采访。通过在不稳定和跨国空间参与这些举措，（而不是硅谷公司或类似的精英科技空间），该项目将探索不同的方式“技术为好”实践者开发和批判性地评估技术的可能性，从而有助于我们理解实践中的技术伦理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响评审标准。

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.