Christoph BeckerI'm giving this talk on Wednesday at Nexa (11am ET/5pm CET) and I look forward to the extended discussion. https://nexa.polito.it/mercoledi-171 #InsolventBook
My book INSOLVENT was selected one of two finalists in the AAP PROSE Awards category "Engineering and Technology". https://ischool.utoronto.ca/news/prof-christoph-beckers-book-insolvent-makes-finals-at-2024-prose-awards/ 🎈 #Books #InsolventBook
Lovely to see my book INSOLVENT "Highly recommended" as 'a rich discussion of the many alternative perspectives and intellectual practices currently shaping computing' for "all readership levels". #books #InsolventBook #computing
https://www.choice360.org/choice-pick/editors-picks-for-january-2024/
@edsu Sure! The old syllabi are already here: https://ischool.utoronto.ca/course/just-sustainability-design/ - I'll make sure to share the new one too. Now that #InsolventBook is out it's high time for an update :)
The paper emphasizes that "To decide the solution is to decide the stakes". In #InsolventBook, I argue that the stakes are often decided even before: in the articulation of the problem to be solved. #solutionism relies on #problemism even without solutions. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14668.003.0009
Chock full of great references, the paper combines environmental justice concepts with Social-Ecological-Technological systems. It outlines an evaluation framework of guiding questions for #AI audits and advocates for broader boundaries and perspectives. Very generative and full of ideas, lots to think about in resonance with #InsolventBook.
The only trouble is that my reading list after finishing the paper than before is longer than before 😏. Full paper link: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.05733.pdf
@dawnnafus @danmcquillan @zgtcooper @Aepasek Thanks for mentioning #InsolventBook here! The Limits workshop is a great place for this question.
And I also fully agree with all of your comments @danmcquillan. These are excellent and so clearly stated. 🙏
And I also fully agree with all of your comments @danmcquillan. These are excellent and so clearly stated. 🙏
If you are reading my book Insolvent or teach with it: I have been working on a reading and discussion guide plus glossary. Far from purrfect but here it is. Please comment so it gets better! #InsolventBook #Books https://docs.google.com/document/d/13cO77afDaQMm0vsTq9HOUpBxgNY1TiOJkEUjW9IoPag/edit
How do we technologists "wake up" to social reality and responsibility? How do we learn to see through our glasses *and* the glasses at the same time? Today I #AmReading "Critical Technical Awakenings" by Maya Malik & @mominmalik 🔥: a helpful analysis of *how* critical consciousness arises in people w/ technical training (like me, see #InsolventBook). Building on Agre & Freire, the article links personal 'perspective transformation' to critical social theory. 💡 📚 🙏
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9698152
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9698152
Critical Technical Awakenings
Starting with Philip E. Agre's 1997 essay on “critical technical practice”, we consider examples of writings from computer science where authors describe “waking up” from a previously narrow technical approach to the world, enabling them to recognize how their previous efforts towards social change had been ineffective. We use these examples first to talk about the underlying assumptions of a technology-centric approach to social problems, and second to theorize these awakenings in terms of Paulo Freire's idea of critical consciousness. Specifically, understanding these awakenings among technical practitioners as examples of this more general phenomenon gives guidance for how we might encourage and guide critical awakenings in order to get more technologists working effectively towards positive social change.
I had the best time today speaking to a group of students in Sweden about “computing in times of extinction” (what a great course title!), their thoughts on #InsolventBook and what we can do next. If you’re teaching classes like that and are reading Insolvent, I’m more than happy to zoom in! #ClimateAction