Category: Recent Ideas from Twitter

Followers of this blog know I am a scanning machine – always looking around on Twitter and beyond, gathering and comparing signals of change or interesting bits of information with other futures practice colleagues. This blog has had a running series on these scans since it started. This is a central idea in futures practice – and best done in community!

In the last six months, I’ve run across a number of great academic articles that I haven’t featured previously. These are listed in alpha order with the authors – and run the gamut of all kinds of topics. What they have in common – is that I think they’ll be of interest to future facing social workers. They show how futures thinking looks in action across our profession – and in other professions that we might intersect with. I found them all fascinating, thought provoking and/or inspiring. They spark thinking as powerful ideas so often do! They are mostly brand new (and just published online) – but a couple are just new to me and within a few years of being written. Hopefully these are the kinds of articles that will find their way into social work courses, research, continuing education – and as importantly our informal co-learning and the shaping of our profession. To meet the future with new levels of readiness…we have to learn together in new ways.

If you have or know of a future-related academic article you’d like me to consider featuring in a future blog post – please share at nissen@pdx.edu.

Brewer, L.C., Fortuna, K.I., Jones, C., Walker, R., Hays, S.N., Patten, C.A. & Cooper, L.A. (2020). Back to the future: Achieving health equity through health infomatics and digital health. JMIR mHealth and Uhealth, Pubished online.

The rapid proliferation of health informatics and digital health innovations has revolutionized clinical and research practices. There is no doubt that these fields will continue to have accelerated growth and a substantial impact on population health. However, there are legitimate concerns about how these promising technological advances can lead to unintended consequences such as perpetuating health and health care disparities for underresourced populations. To mitigate this potential pitfall, it is imperative for the health informatics and digital health scientific communities to understand the challenges faced by disadvantaged groups, including racial and ethnic minorities, which hinder their achievement of ideal health. This paper presents illustrative exemplars as case studies of contextually tailored, sociotechnical mobile health interventions designed with community members to address health inequities using community-engaged research approaches. We strongly encourage researchers and innovators to integrate community engagement into the development of data-driven, modernized solutions for every sector of society to truly achieve health equity for all. (Author abstract.)

DeCook, J. (2020). A (white) cyborg’s manifesto: The overwhelmingly western ideology driving technofeminist theory. Media, Culture and Society, Published online on September 28, 2020.

‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ is a required reading in many graduate programs to explore technofeminism, transhumanism, and studies of science and technology to explore notions of gender, race, and other minoritized identities. However, in this essay, I note the ways that Haraway’s pieces still exacerbates categories of difference, and my own difficulties and critiques of the cyborg identity. I encourage readers not only to consider its importance, but also limits the cyborg identity, and how the concept of cyborg itself is fraught with a Western, patriarchal violence that cannot be ignored in the greater context of technology and technological innovation. Although useful in imagining a departure from traditional categories of difference, I inquire as to whether it upholds the very things it purported to dismantle, and explore other scholars’ works in challenging the concepts. Ultimately ‘cyborgs’ are not outside fof the politics within which they exist, and must be interpreted in relation to other identity categories without upholding whiteness and Western epistemologies as the center. (Author abstract.)

Detlaff, A., Weber, K., Pendleton, M., Bettencourt, B. & Burton, L. (2020). It is not a broken system, it is a system that needs to be broken: the upEND movement to abolish the child welfare system.Journal of Public Child Welfare, Published online September 6, 2020.

The child welfare system disproportionately harms Black children and families through systemic over-surveillance, over-involvement, and the resulting adverse outcomes associated with foster care. Ending this harm will only be achieved when the forcible surveillance and separation of children from their parents is no longer viewed as an acceptable form of intervention. This paper describes the upEND movement, a collaborative movement aimed at abolishing the child welfare system as we know it and reimagining how we as a society support child, family, and community safety and well-being. (Author abstract.)

Hamilton, A.M. (2020). A geneology of critical race and digital studies: Past, present and future. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Published online first June 1, 2020.

The interplay between race and technology has captured the attention of scholars in sociology, communication, media studies, and beyond. Previous research has focused on a range of topics including the centrality of race to the structure and function of the Internet, critiques of digital divide studies, and the phenomenon of Black Twitter. Although a robust history of critical race and digital studies exists, there has yet to be a definitive overview that traces the development of this important field. In this review, I fill this gap by delineating a genealogy of critical race and digital studies by mapping the intellectual terrain of the field. To do this, I begin with a broad overview of the history of Internet studies before reviewing key areas in the field of critical race and digital studies, including colorblind studies of the web, digital divide studies, and Black Twitter. I conclude with a focus on the ways that this body of literature can be brought forth to critically understand the implications of emerging areas of academic debate on studies of race and technology. (Author abstract.)

Hickel, J. (2020). What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalizations, Published online first on September 4, 2020.

Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being. Over the past few years, the idea has attracted significant attention among academics and social movements, but for people new to the idea it raises a number of questions. Here I set out to clarify three specific issues: (1) I specify what degrowth means, and argue that the framing of degrowth is an asset, not a liability; (2) I explain how degrowth differs fundamentally from a recession; and (3) I affirm that degrowth is primarily focused on high-income nations, and explore the implications of degrowth for the global South.

Hickey, A. (2019). Rupturing settler time: visual culture and geographies of Indigenous futurity. World Art, 9(2), 163-180.

This article focuses on the implications of the work of two artists on discourses of temporality and Indigenous futurity. I analyze the work of Skawennati and Bonnie Devine, with particular consideration of their resistance to the hegemonic temporality of extractive and capitalist lifeways and what Mark Rifkin calls ‘settler time’ [Rifkin, Mark. 2017. Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination. Durham: Duke University Press]. Skawennati provides a spiraling narrative of Indigenous pasts and futures in her machinima series, TimeTraveller™. In her sculptural installation, Letters from Home, Bonnie Devine calls upon the viewer to consider the stones from the Serpent River First Nation as elders. The casts of these stones are framed as texts, and viewers are encouraged to learn how to read these lessons, collapsing the divide between deep time and the present. Ultimately, I argue that these artists use emerging, experimental, and established media as a method of creating ruptures in Euro-Western notions of time, providing an embodied experience of a temporal otherwise and glimpses into decolonized futures. (Author abstract.)

Hicks, M. (2019). Hacking the cis-tem: Transgender citizens and the early digital state. IEEE Annals of History and Computing, 41(1), 20-33.

This paper looks at the case of transgender Britons who tried to correct the gender listed on their government-issued ID cards, but ran up against the British government’s increasingly computerized methods for tracking, identifying, and defining citizens. These newly computerizing systems show some of the earliest examples of transphobic algorithmic bias: explicit attempts to program trans people out of the system can be seen in the programming of the early Ministry of Pensions computer system designed to apportion benefits to all tax paying British citizens. Transgender citizens pushed back against these developments, attempting to hack the bureaucratic avenues and categories available to them, laying the groundwork for a coalescing political movement. This paper argues that uncovering the deep prehistory of algorithmic bias and investigating instances of resistance within this history is essential to understanding current debates about algorithmic bias, and how computerized systems have long functioned to create and enforce norms and hierarchies. (Author abstract.)

Monahan, T. (2017). Regulating belonging: surveillance, inequality, and the cultural production of abjection. Journal of Cultural Economy, 10(2), 191-206.

Conditions of abjection are increasingly viewed as problems to be managed with surveillance. Across disparate domains, bodies that challenge normalized constructions of responsible neoliberal citizenship are categorized, monitored, policed, and excluded in dehumanizing and often violent ways. This paper explores the role of surveillance in such processes. The registers covered include everyday abjection (welfare systems, battered women’s shelters, and homelessness), criminalized poverty (police targeting of the poor and emerging ‘poverty capitalism’ arrangements), and the radically adrift (the identification, tracking, and containment of refugees). In each of these cases, surveillance is yoked to structural inequalities and systems of oppression, but it also possesses a cultural dimension that thrusts marginalized and dehumanized subjectivities upon the abject Other. Therefore, I argue that in order to critique the gendered, racialized, and classed dimensions of contemporary surveillance, it is necessary to take seriously the mythologies that give meaning to surveillance practices and the subjectivities that are engendered by them. (Author abstract.)

Patton, D.U. (2020). Social work thinking for UX and AI design. Interactions, February, pp. 86-89.

“What if, instead of solely looking for the best AI talent, tech companies and startups created a Chief Social Work Officer? This is the question Greg Epstein posed to me during our conversation about why AI needs more social workers. My response: The social work difference is that from inception, when considering why or if AI should be created or integrated in society, we would ask: Who should be in the room making that decision? Social work thinking underscores the importance of anticipating how
technological solutions operate and activate in diverse communities” (p. 86).

Redden, J., Dencik, L. & Warne, H. (2020). Datafied child welfare services: Unpacking politics,, economics and power. Policy Studies, 41 (5), 507-526.

This article analyses three distinct child welfare data systems in England. We focus on child welfare as a contested area in public services where data systems are being used to inform decision-making and transforming governance. We advance the use of “data assemblage” as an analytical framework to detail how key political and economic factors influence the development of these data systems. We provide an empirically grounded demonstration of why child welfare data systems must not be considered neutral decision aid tools. We identify how systems of thought, ownership structures, policy agendas, organizational practices, and legal frameworks influence these data systems. We find similarities in the move toward greater sharing of sensitive data, but differences in attitudes toward public-private partnerships, rights and uses of prediction. There is a worrying lack of information available about the impacts of these systems on those who are subject to them – particularly in relation to predictive data systems. We argue for policy debates to go beyond technical fixes and privacy concerns to engage with fundamental questions about the power dynamics and rights issues linked to the expansion of data sharing in this sector as well as whether predictive data systems should be used at all. (Author abstract.)

Sage, M., Iverson Hitchcock, L. & Bakk, L. (2020). Professional collaboration networks as a social work research practice innovation: Preparing DSW students for knowledge dissemination roles in a digital society. Research on Social Work Practice. Published online first September 28, 2020.

In professional disciplines, gaps often exist between research and practice. This occurs because of a lack of information exchange between stakeholders about various knowledge of problems and solutions. Implementation science offers systematic strategies for addressing gaps. One potential way to close gaps is by using professional collaboration networks (PCNs), which are technology-mediated, user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance connections and professional opportunities. These participatory networks are goal-specific, extending across disciplinary and international borders. PCN users can keep current on empirical developments, disseminate knowledge, connect to others for collaboration and mentoring, and expand in-person networks. They allow social workers to contribute their unique knowledge of social systems across interdisciplinary contexts and contribute to conversations about social. This article explores the development of PCNs as a tool for social work researchers, practitioners, and students. PCNs in social work education are explored, including relevance to lifelong professional learning and enhancing research impact. (Author abstract.)

Schillinger, D., Chittamura, D. & Ramirez, S. (2020). From “infodemics” to health promotion: A novel framework for the role of social media in public health. American Journal of Public Health, 110(9), 1393-1396.

Despite the ubiquity of health-related communications via social media, no consensus has emerged on whether this medium, on balance, jeopardizes or promotes public health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media has been described as the source of a toxic “infodemic” or a valuable tool for public health. No conceptual model exists for examining the roles that social media can play with respect to population health. We present a novel framework to guide the investigation and assessment of the effects of social media on public health: the SPHERE (Social media and Public Health Epidemic and REsponse) continuum. This model illustrates the functions of social media across the epidemic–response continuum, ranging across contagion, vector, surveillance, inoculant, disease control, and treatment. We also describe attributes of the communications, diseases and pathogens, and hosts that influence whether certain functions dominate over others. Finally, we describe a comprehensive set of outcomes relevant to the evaluation of the effects of social media on the public’s health. (Author abstract.)

West, S.M. (2019). Data capitalism: Redefining the logics of surveillance and privacy. Business and Society, 58(1), 20-41.

This article provides a history of private sector tracking technologies, examining how the advent of commercial surveillance centered around a logic of data capitalism. Data capitalism is a system in which the commoditization of our data enables an asymmetric redistribution of power that is weighted toward the actors who have access and the capability to make sense of information. It is enacted through capitalism and justified by the association of networked technologies with the political and social benefits of online community, drawing upon narratives that foreground the social and political benefits of networked technologies. I examine its origins in the wake of the dotcom bubble, when technology makers sought to develop a new business model to support online commerce. By leveraging user data for advertising purposes, they contributed to an information environment in which every action leaves behind traces collected by companies for commercial purposes. Through analysis of primary source materials produced by technology makers, journalists, and business analysts, I examine the emergence of data capitalism between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s and its central role in the contemporary information economy. (Author abstract.)

Young, J.A. (2020): #SocialWorkEducation: A computational analysis of social work programs on Twitter, Journal of Social Work Education. Published online first October 2, 2020.

Computational social science methods provide a better understanding of how social work education programs use Twitter. Data mining and sentiment analysis of 2,509 tweets were conducted using the Information, Community, and Action conceptual framework. Programs primarily tweet content related to the theme of Information and the tone of the tweets are mainly positive. Statistics such as the number of followers, number of tweets, types of hashtags (#) used, and when tweets are shared during the day are also provided to illustrate how programs use Twitter. A composite score was also developed to highlight the top 10 social work programs on Twitter. Implications for social work education are given along with suggestions for programs in developing a social media strategy. (Author abstract.)

This is part of a regular series of posts that track a few notable things I find on Twitter that reflect signals and/or futures thinking I think will be relevant to social workers and/or folks in higher education. You can view previous posts in this series here.

To say it has been an unusual couple of months would be the understatement (literally) of the century. Numerous voices have described our times as the reckoning with the “dual pandemics” – covid 19 and racialized violence at the hands of the police.

This entry begins with an overview of the current crisis of racialized police violence – through a futures lens. (Previous posts have provided extensive information specifically related to a futures and/or social work perspective on covid-19.)

A Futures Lens on Racialized Police Violence

The recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others provided only the latest example of racialized lethal police violence. It has provoked a summer of consistent, widespread and powerful demonstration and vocal calls for everything from reform to defunding and complete re-imagining of the role of police in modern society. It is being described as the potentially the largest social movement in US history, and has global reach beyond.

Social work has deepened its only level of dialogue, debate and exploration of this topic – particularly after the U.S. President suggested that social work should be more involved in police work. The National Association of Social Work and other social work scholars and leaders were quick to respond. Many have expressed strong opinions that social work doesn’t belong in police partnerships, despite the many years that such contributions have been made. Numerous important convenings have continued to deepen and increase focus on related critiques, professional soul searching and important reckoning with the question of whether and how social work should participate in the future of policing. Other voices suggest that there are a wide range of other approaches including mutual aid and peer supports that can better address the crisis of lack of support in vulnerable communties – better than police OR social work. The creative ways that people are coming together to respond to covid-19 is something to watch carefully, learn from and grow capacity around. It has been an inspiring dimension of a deeply rattling time.

This is an enormously important time for the social work profession as it debates, explores and considers the ethical and practical dimensions of how to practice in a way that truly contributes to a future of equity and racial justice. I support the dialogue and believe we are on the verge of some incredibly deep revisions and transitions in how we think about and practice “public safety” in the years to come. I would suggest that these debates and dialogues as deep developmental spaces for our entire social work enterprise…and I believe that a futures lens could help to inform and guide these dialogues to new places not only to reconcile the past and the present, but what vitally important emergent issues (like the drum and expansion of surveillance technology) absolutely MUST be considered when forming a change and equity agenda for the years to come.

A futures perspective would assert that considering not only the past and the present is necessary, but what is emergent and what may be just beyond the range of our ability to observe is equally important. In her book “Race Against Technology,” author and scholar Ruha Benjamin suggests that technology is accelerating a kind of policing that doesn’t necessarily involve actual human police – but rather algorithms, surveillance and acceleration in related infrastructure as commerce and entwined in governmentality that should be of great concern to human rights and equity advocates. Other scholars such as Safiya Umoja Noble have already extensively noted the deep racism embedded the way that the internet functions – and influencing a number of related emerging technologies. They symbolize that simply “increasing” or “decreasing” the number of police or amount of funding in an of itself will not necessarily change the trend of over-policing via technology, just as it is not possible to make technological systems “race neutral” at will without deep and significant examination and exposure of the race-related power dynamics that are too often embedded into emerging technologies. The idea of “digital policing” is a very real and emergent part of the evolution of the way law enforcement is conceptualized, along with other technological deployment. The very real emergence of artificial intelligence in the policing space involves a very particular set of risks and concerns. Issues such as the growth of and related equity concerns related to facial recognition technologies exemplify and illustrate these complexities that should be of concern to social workers, as well as to society at large.

For my part, I continue to watch, with admiration, entirely new ways of approaching justice such as the commitment that Austrailia has just made to a “truth and justice process” concerning recognition of ongoing injustices against Aboriginal people. I continue to imagine what such a process might look like here in the U.S. and what a future might look like in which creative and transformational work of this nature might be like.

These discourses have huge implications for a number of large systems where social workers practice and underscore the importance of us being ready for new challenges and new forms of old problems as we continue and evolve our profession. Being “future ready” means that we gain the knowledge, skills and ethics to positively impact not only the social problems and challenges in front of us but those that are around the corner. Ideologies both of policing and of futuring must be unpacked and democratized in new ways…now and tomorrow.

Covid-19 and the Future

This is a really thoughtful and interesting piece about the speed at which covid-19 is expanding the creativity and imaginations of humanity in the midst of the pandemic. Author Kim Stanley Robinson says: “What felt impossible has become thinkable. The spring of 2020 is suggestive of how much, and how quickly, we can change as a civilization.”

This article is a creative take on how cities may continue to evolve to meet the challenges of covid-19 and beyond.

Here’s an interesting piece about the post-covid 19 world written by 7 economists suggesting important lessons for the world and related transformational possibilities.

Another great take on the pros and cons of futures thinking (and its variations – some of which are more corporatized than others) comes from Dr. Devon Powers. This piece carefully and thoughtfully navigates the meaningful from the fluff of futures thinking and discourse.

Technology

This article asks the provocative question “who owns your face?” I’ve been in a number of futures sessions in which the idea of “copyrighting your own face” has come up partially in jest, and partially seriously. It introduces the reader to the world of “data brokerage,” and though the piece is a couple of years old now, it is even more relevant now. The ongoing complexity with which our personal data moves beyond what is visible should be considered by social workers as part of our reading and understanding of the contemporary ecosystem we live and work. This is especially relevant to people and communities who have been exploited and/or marginalized.

Here’s another of these thought-provoking lists of “ways technology will change the world by…” (insert year here…). I must confess I always click on them… Generally I find their value in groups (the end/beginning of the year is always a good time for a fresh batch) and like to try to get a “meta-sense” of what they are revealing as a group. This particular list is more thoughtful and imaginative than most – though in no way complete or exhaustive. Important note: Sometimes these types of lists can be heavy on the “used” or “official” futures (those futures suggested by powerful entities pushing a particular agenda aligned with economic or political forces). That is always a risk. My own commitment as a futurist, as is the case with many futurists I admire and follow, is to go deeper to uncover ideas and images of the future that may be emergent, uncomfortable, complicated and not necessarily easily managed by the market or dominant political forces. Of course, as a social worker I have many questions, and they all revolve around these core concepts: Who will decide if these futures come to pass, who will win and lose in these types of futures, etc.? All that said, as I continue to invite folks to consider the future either in social work or interdisciplinary spaces – with these provisos, this is the kind of list that can be great fun and very useful to unleash some bigger and unbounded thinking. This is particularly true when working with students.

Futures Thinking for a Better World

Speculative futures is a particular branch of foresight and futures work that focuses on creating imaginative experiences, scenarios and/or artifacts that embody and invite more personal, visceral and engaged futures experiences. This article, written by speculative futures leader and expert Dr. Stuart Candy gives an indepth overview of the kinds of projects that can emerge when speculative futurists get engaged. Here’s another terrific piece covering storytelling and imagination related to climate change by Mansi Parikh.

This half hour interview by renowned and international futurist and scholar Dr. Sohail Inayatullah is also about the role of new narratives in understanding the changing world. You can read some of his classic themes and conceptual/analytic frameworks here.

Here’s a wonderful piece about a speculative imagination project led by Olalekan Jeyifous and an Afrofuturist turn for Brooklyn, New York.

Futurist Vanessa Mason shares this creative and lively post about the importance of imagination to move through the dual pandemics of covid-19 and racism in our world to build toward the future we collectively want. (Note – she includes a terrific shout out to Columbia University Social Work Professor Dr. Courtney Cogburn and her VR Film “The 1000 cut journey.”)

Note: I just had the privilege of finishing up the Institute for the Future’s Design Futures course last week. It was fantastic for many reasons – I’ll be doing a post soon to do a download. You can find out more about the training here. Special respectful shout out to trainers Dr. Jake Dunagan and Jacques Barcia. Learned a lot and have so many ideas about how to engage social work in some “next level” creativity in our thinking and our work vis a vis these tools and ideas.

Systems Science, Chaos and Complexity

This article does a fine job of reviewing these important concepts – not only essential knowledge for futures work but increasingly relevant for cutting edge macro social work.

I found this additional piece about covid-19 and systems change also quite interesting and constructive.

In a slightly different but important and creative turn, I found this piece by Dr. Deepa Iyer to be a wonderful overview of “social change roles.” It both acknowledges the complexity and range of roles that communities of change agents might use to best arrange their resources to best achieve their objectives.

Universal Basic Income – Getting Ready

Covid-19 has caused more discourse and consideration of UBI than at any other time in recent history. This article is a good review of some of the fundamental issues and complications. It even considers some cryptocurrency possibilities as part of its coverage. Could it happen? Not clear yet…but if it could…social work might well be part of making it so, and making it work. Another interesting initiative (connected to previous U.S. presidential candidate Andrew Yang) is called the Data Dividend Project which aims to use class action law to develop direct payments to individuals based on large scale use of data by a number of well-known corporations. I’m not endorsing (haven’t studied it deeply enough to do so yet) but in general I find the spirit behind this kind of thing relevant and fascinating.

Crip Technoscience Manifesto

As I’ve had the pleasure of attending a variety of futures gatherings the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to hear from many medical and technology experts seeking to find cures and/or restore life and functioning from a wide variety of degenerative diseases, conditions or injuries. It is a truly fascinating time to be alive to see the ways that technology can intersect with human need. That said, it is also very complicated to assess who decides what should or should not be considered a disability, what corrective or restorative solutions should be available or what they should be like. I recently ran across this article (Crip Technoscience Manifesto) and it seemed a really important part of ethical and critical framing of these kinds of issues. Through its centering of power and voice of people living with and experiencing disabilities as an essential element – I found it both incredibly inspiring as well as useful in navigating how to think about, interrogate and move among a great deal of activity happening in this space.

Note: This is part of a regular occasional series of blog posts I do that is based on scans of Twitter and elsewhere on the web – and a gathering of interesting things I think social workers, social work educators, folks in higher education and related professions who interested in futures topics might find valuable. It is a digest, and is unapologetically eclectic. Here’s a link to prior posts – check them out too!!

The Future of Law

I’m always interested in news items related to the future of the professions. As we know – this is a fast moving area and many factors are at work in their evolution . (For more on this topic in general see here). This piece is a survey of lawyers all pondering “what’s coming” in their profession and whether or not they feel ready for it.

Black Software

Author Charlton McIlwain has written a terrific book (on my sabbatical reading list) of this same name (Black Software). Here’s a podcast interview with the author that I found a great introduction to his work…you’re going to want to learn more. The history and importance of Black perspectives on tech and society are essential to a true understanding of the power, risks and opportunities of what comes next. Thought provoking!

Future of Work

I’m fans of the Susskind family – they are always putting more interesting things into the world related to the future of work and the professions (see note above). I just ran across a recent TED talk by Daniel Susskind on Three Myths Regarding the Future of Work. It isn’t short…but it is a rigorous, creative and important overview of this topic. I highly recommend!

Futures Thinking for Academic Librarians

Not just because my mom was one (a bookmobile lady to be precise) but I have so much love, respect and appreciation for good librarians and all who work in the sector. The library professionals at my university, like many, are extraordinarily future facing and ever looking ahead to new forms of literacy, information production and how to stay relevant and helpful in our shared academic spaces. While scanning, I ran across this great report – I passed it along to my colleagues but thought others might be interested too.

Climate Change

It can just be paralyzing can’t it? So much to worry about – where to start – how to keep going? At the same time we are having an awakening about the relevance of eco-psychology and the very real needs humans have for nature, we of course are dealing with deep, pervasive and emergent climate change complexity as well. Here’s a piece from the Economist on the “state” of our climate change work to do in here and now, as well as the future. Here’s a piece about “ecological grief” as experienced by climate scientists. It is sobering. Listen, we have no choice but to help each other focus, breathe deeply and KEEP GOING. This article from the NYT this past week is an energizer. Do you what you can, be strategic, get busy. Focus on the right things.

On this same topic, here’s a new and useful piece regarding the emerging importance of acknowledging the mental heath strain and challenges related to climate change. Connecting these dots is important, say these authors. Here’s another piece that breaks down what hope about climate change means now and in the future. Finally, here’s a super creative piece that endeavors to “tell a new story” about climate change by fast-forwarding into the future…and imagining how we solved the climate crisis in the year 2030.

Tech and AI

Here’s a lively piece from one of my favorite futurists Douglass Rushkoff in which he begins by saying: “We’ve spent the decade letting our tech define us. It’s out of control. Technology has grown from some devices and platforms we use to an entire environment in which we function.” Mr. Rushkoff is the author of one of my favorite futures books “Team Human” which is a must-read in my opinion (I especially love the audiobook which he reads). The article is a robust re-centering (as is his speciality) in the future of humans in this world…and how we get back to a vision of the future in which people, cooperation and community are the drivers.

It appears that the White House has come out with some new AI principles – these authors suggest they won’t work. Check it out – important and urgent. Note: Big thumbs up to Amy Webb’s book “The Big Nine” which I reviewed earlier in this space related to this topic – creative and empowering .

Why do we gender AI? These authors break it down...and change is coming.

Overview and analysis of the complexities of the coming “digital ID” centered world. Promising convenience and efficiency – it has a host of predictable an unpredictable risks. As always, I’m asking – how will this impact the most vulnerable? Some discussion of this in this article. Along those lines, another article explores the coming “digital welfare state.” Are social workers and human rights folks involved in the design and implementation of these systems? Not enough…so much work to be done. Pay attention to this space as a major cause of concern for well being and justice in the years to come.

Here’s a nice brief piece about algorithmic justice and the need to keep continual watch and invest democratic energy in oversight and regulation to keep AI ethical in the years to come.

The Future of Our Economy

We know the one we have isn’t working so well – at least as seen by most social workers and the communities they serve. I’m always interested in new ideas about what economic evolution that is human and equity centered might look like. This article goes there…it is an inspiring and thought provoking read.

The Future of Mental Health

How can tech help to address a global mental health crisis? This article answers that question. More social workers need to get in on this conversation. I believe we can be ethical and effective in these spaces…but we have to get in there and participate on purpose. More on this topic here. At this point, I’m neither a promoter or naysayer about these types of tools, but I do feel quite sure we have a lot to learn and a lot to share as futures where these ideas are accelerating and we have shortages of practitioners.

The Future of Work

This particular article is about the future of “not working” – vis a vis the “compelling case for working a lot less.” It is hard to imagine this future, but this piece is part of a continuing (and seemingly growing international conversation) about how working a little less would be a lot better for our health, relationship and community.

Tech Matters

Our city of Portland, Oregon made the news for its plans to have one of the most strict facial recognition bans in the country. I’m a fan of this move.

This piece suggests that “biased algorithms are easier to fix than biased people.” Here’s a piece that notes its making it easier for governments to responsibly adopt AI technology. It’s another effort to come up with some shared ethical and practice guidelines for this powerful technology. It is good to see them coming – it would be even greater to see them adopted widely and used. This piece, for example, suggests we aren’t doing a very good job in that department.

Here’s an interesting article posing the question: Do children think your smart speaker is just another family member? Thoughtful exploration about how the prevalence of technologies in our childrens’ lives is truly changing their experience of childhood in some unexpected ways and with impacts we can’t quite know yet. Without awfulizing, it probably is important to consider.

Should we give our robots citizenship? This piece from 2017 suggest that even as a gag, it probably isn’t a good idea, and is another category of human-tech activity we don’t have legal ground to be ready for what is coming.

Here’s another article that proclaims a crisis in the development of autonomous weapons – and a call to ban them. A slow down doesn’t seem to be coming.

Here’s a new and helpful “Digital Justice Manifesto” developed by a coalition of European data justice activists and organizations. It’s a 2019 document.

Biotech and Genomic Surveillance

We talk a lot about technological surveillance (and it is a concern) but how about “genomic surveillance.” This article suggests it is a growing threat and a human rights evolving story. Without international guidelines, the pace of potential abuses and the prevalence of genetic data is a bad combination.

The 2020 Trends Keep Coming

Tis the season! Here’s a fun overview of “12 themes experts predict will shape the world in 50 years.” (Algae, implantable tech, and lab grown meat anyone??)

What If We Get the Future Right?

Here’s a pretty creative and useful (from a futures practice) article asking the question “what if we get things right? Visions for the year 2030.” I’m excited to use this piece in practice as I think it stretches our creative thinking muscles towards some positive futures. The dystopian futures are a more common feature of our media/entertainment world. I think good positive future ideas are rarer to find and harder to come by. But they lay the groundwork to educate, to stimulate aspiration, to rekindle hope and determination. This is a valuable piece to read for something a little different – and dare I say it – upbeat? Along those lines, here’s a review of a new book by author Joe Tankersley (“Not all futurists are dystopian”) which also lays out a challenge to use our imaginations to build a better future on purpose. I got the book based on this article, but haven’t read it yet!

Also, you may recall that I’m on sabbatical this year. I thought I’d put my sabbatical reading list together to show you the books I’ve accumulated (like a squirrel with a stash of nuts…? Well maybe…) to settle into a cozy winter of some deep review and study. Check it out here.

Interested in looking back to see some of my past posts gathering up interesting items from Twitter? Click here to check them out.