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Call for Papers on Public Interest Technology
The Journal of Global Integrated STEM
Submissions due June 1, 2024
Special Issue Editor Amy Yeboah Quarkume, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Howard University, will guide this first annual special edition on the growing field of public interest technology.
Dr. Latanya Sweeney, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and Technology, Harvard Kennedy School and Faculty of Arts and Sciences, states “We live in a new kind of technocracy –a society in which technology design dictates the rules that govern daily life.” With the rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) often associated with the integration of digital technologies, artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), society has also seen an increase in inequality and injustice as an inherent part of an agenda of capitalism, disguised as democracy for social control. Despite the increasing complexity of social problems and technology, especially around governance and economic interests, the topic of Public Interest Technology (PIT) has not received significant attention in the literature.
This special issue seeks to address this gap by starting a conversation that engages this new generation of socio-technical concerns. The issue will explore the growing and significant field of PIT in the age of technocracy, where new frameworks, technologies, research projects, policies, and pathways for career exploration are revealing themselves. We seek topics that span a range of issues, including but not limited to ethical design, citizen science community-centered technology, data governance, mitigating AI bias, technology for public good, tech equity and inclusion, and open-source science. The potential commitment in utilizing technology to champion social justice and the public interest, despite the pervasive influence of technology, is growing.
This first annual special edition on PIT will focus on research manuscripts, conceptually expansive literature reviews, interviews with leading scholars, and case studies that speak to the center around leveraging technology to promote, protect, and preserve the public’s interests.
Advance the following big ideas…
- Tech Literacy
- Open-Source Science and Innovation
- Ethical Design for Public Technologies
- Citizen science/ technology
- Community Centered Technology
- Policy Innovations for Public Interest Technology
- Convergence Science
- Data Governance
- Technology for Public Good
- Tech Equity and Inclusion
- Resilient Technologies for Crisis Response
- Free and Open-Source Data
Represent voices from the following fields / backgrounds / lived experience…
- Data Science
- Social Science
- Computer Science
- Public Policy and Governance
- Environmental Studies
- Disability studies
- Ethics and Philosophy
- Law and Policy
- Business and Ethics
- Technology and Engineering
- Community Development
- Labor Studies
We welcome submissions from scholars at any stage of their careers that employ varied epistemological and methodological approaches under a PIT framework, directing attention toward indigenous, emerging, and new solutions and practices. Submissions are encouraged to delve into cross-disciplinary research, providing unique insights into the application and relevance of a PIT framework. Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract to the editors for preliminary feedback, emphasizing innovation contributions in terms of knowledge, methodology, theory, and empirical insights.
Send submissions to Editor-in-Chief Robert Krueger [JIGSspecialissue@wpi.edu] with “PIT-UN special issue” in the subject line.