The Digital Good Network: exploring equity, sustainability and resilience in people's relationships with and through digital technologies

数字技术并不总是对社会有好处。在研究、政策、行业和公民社会中，如何定义、衡量和建设良好的数字社会需要迫切关注。数字商品的定义不明确，存在争议，由此导致的共识缺失可能是有害的。例如，算法决策可能会在公平的幌子下引入偏见；用户认为旨在让社交媒体更安全的政策是相反的。为了限制未来的危害并确保数字技术产生积极成果，数字善网络(DGN)将提供一个由社会科学领导的跨学科研究方案，重点是数字善应该是什么样子以及如何实现这一紧迫而被忽视的问题。DGN在学科和机构之间架起了桥梁，并具有全球视野。它由处于不同职业阶段的跨学科研究人员以及来自政策、行业、社区和文化部门的合作伙伴领导。DGN将：支持跨学科和数字产品各个方面的研究项目和方法创新；提供实习、奖学金和培训；主办技术设计短跑和研讨会；与政策、行业和社区共同进行研究；并基于原创研究、水平扫描和开放数据编制数字产品指数。最终，DGN将在使社会实现数字善方面带来阶段性变化。DGN？将通过重点关注三个社会挑战，对与人们与数字技术(或“数字关系”)的关系有关的紧迫规范问题产生新的见解，这三个社会挑战对设想与数字技术和通过数字技术建立良好关系至关重要：公平、复原力和可持续性。上议院的Beyond Digital报告强调了前两点：1)公平，因为数字关系发生在权力不对称和结构性不平等的条件下；2)韧性，因为面对流行病、政治冲突、自然灾害、数字错误信息、网络仇恨和日常生活，个人和集体的福祉和应对策略对数字关系和我们实现数字善至关重要。第三个社会挑战是可持续性，因为气候变化等全球性挑战要求我们考虑我们的数字关系是否可持续(正如英国、欧盟和联合国的政策目标所强调的那样)。数字关系在社会和结构中展开，由社会和结构塑造，因此解决这三个紧迫的社会挑战对于设想良好的数字关系至关重要。DGN将扩大研究能力，并在数字社会学术及其对政策、行业和社区的影响方面带来阶段性变化。它将建立一个由社会科学学科和其他学科的研究人员组成的网络，包括来自艺术和人文学科的文化研究、人类学和设计，以及STEM的计算机和工程。DGN活动旨在吸引来自不同职业阶段、在不同领域拥有专业知识的研究人员，以及来自政策、实践、行业、文化部门和社区的利益攸关方，以确保研究与这些部门共同产生、回应和提供。这些学科、职业阶段、领域和部门都在DGN核心团队和专家学院中代表，他们将DGN与这些群体内外的人员、组织和网络联系起来。

Digital technologies are not always good for societies. Across research, policy, industry and civil society, how to define, measure and build good digital societies needs urgent attention. The digital good is ill-defined and contested, and the resulting lack of consensus can be harmful. For example, algorithmic decision-making can introduce bias under the guise of fairness; policies designed to make social media safer are experienced by users as doing the opposite. To limit future harms and ensure that digital technologies have positive outcomes, The Digital Good Network (DGN) will deliver an interdisciplinary, social science-led research programme centred on the urgent, neglected question of what the digital good should look like and how it can be achieved. DGN bridges disciplines and institutions and is global in outlook. It is led by transdisciplinary researchers at different career stages and by partners from policy, industry, community and cultural sectors. DGN will: support research projects and methodological innovation across disciplines and various dimensions of the digital good; offer internships, fellowships and training; host technology design sprints and workshops; co-produce research with policy, industry and communities; and produce a Digital Good Index, based on original research, horizon scanning and open data. Ultimately, DGN will lead to a step-change in enabling societies to realise the digital good. DGN?will generate new insights into urgent normative questions relating to people's relationships with and through digital technologies (or 'digital relationships'), by focusing on three societal challenges that are crucial to envisioning good?relationships with and through digital technologies:?equity, resilience and sustainability. The House of Lords' Beyond Digital report highlights the first two: 1) equity, because digital relationships take place in conditions of power asymmetry and structural inequity and 2) resilience, because individual and collective wellbeing, wellness and coping strategies in the face of pandemics, political conflicts, natural disasters, digital misinformation, online hate and everyday life matter in digital relationships and for our realisation of the digital good. The third societal challenge is sustainability, because planetary challenges like climate change demand that we consider whether our digital relationships are sustainable (as highlighted in UK, EU and UN policy goals). Digital relationships unfold within, are shaped by and shape societies and structures, so addressing these three pressing societal challenges is crucial to envisioning good digital relationships. DGN will expand research capacity and deliver a step-change in digital society scholarship and its impact on policy, industries and communities. It will build a network of researchers from social science disciplines and beyond, including eg cultural studies, anthropology and design from the arts and humanities, and computing and engineering from STEM. DGN activities are designed to engage researchers from diverse career stages, with expertise in diverse domains, and stakeholders from policy, practice, industries, cultural sectors and communities, to ensure research is co-produced with, responds to, and feeds into these sectors. These disciplines, career stages, domains and sectors are all represented in the DGN core team and College of Experts, who will link DGN to people, organisations and networks within and beyond these groups.