justice – Looks Like New

How has racism held back economic democracy?

MEDLab — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

How connected is the struggle for racial justice and the fight for a democratic economy? How has racism hindered the fight, and how can activists work together for a better future on both fronts? This month on, Looks Like New, MEDlab director Nathan Schneider hosted a group conversation of 100+ guests to understand these questions. This event hosted Jason Spicer, an assistant professor at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, and findings from his recently published book, Co-Operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American. This presentation is followed by a response from Jessica Gordon Nembhard of John Jay College, whose book Collective Courage is the definitive history of the African-American cooperative. This event seeks to broadcast just how much racism has actively held back the future of a democratic economy. Both Jason Spicer and Jessica Gordan Nembhard stress how important knowing the connection between a democratic economy and the struggle for racial justice is.

Could online justice be restorative?

MEDLab — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 00:00:27 +0000

The stakes for moderation and governance in online communities are getting higher and higher. Harms can be very serious, from election manipulation to sexual abuse.

But for the most part, platforms rely on only very blunt tools for addressing these harms—the digital equivalents of censoring and exiling.

But can we do better than simply imagining we can make harm go away?

Niloufar Salehi (UC Berkeley) and Amy Hasinoff (CU Denver) have been exploring how to bring practices of restorative justice into online communities. This discussion is part of the Metagovernance Seminar (metagov.org).

What Makes Tech Inclusive?

MEDLab — Fri, 29 May 2020 00:00:58 +0000

Often, discussions about diversity in the tech industry focus on mere representation. But in this discussion from Boulder Startup Week, we take inspiration from the Zebras Unite network, which seeks not just to change representation superficially but to change models of business and culture. We hear from information scientist Shamika Goddard, startup co-founder Corey Kohn, and neuro-engineer Shaz Zamore—each of whom is working on strategies to create a more radically inclusive relationship with technology.