What Is Social Justice?
Wikipedia defines social
justice as justice in terms of the distribution of wealth,
opportunities, and privileges within a society.
Social justice means the practice of
Paulo Freire's
humanization, and is consistent with the revolution of values
described by Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. in his
Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence speech:
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of
poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas
and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in
Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern
for the social betterment of the countries, and say, This is not just.
It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say,
This is not just.
The Western arrogance of feeling that it has
everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
Our Mission:
The mission of Social Justice Computing is to use information technology in
the service of social justice. To make these goals clear and to connect us
with the global movement toward their attainment, we are guided by the 17
United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals.
These 17 goals provide a concrete framework for guiding us toward using
information and communication technology in the service of meeting our
shared human needs.
Our Vision:
Social Justice computing envisions a future where workers in the information
and communications technology field can find meaningful employment using their
technology skills in the service of social justice and meeting human needs.
The sad truth is that ICT jobs in our current economic system are largely
limited to work that increases inequality and dehumanization, enriching
oligarchs and destroying our shared environment. Our own country is
sadly one of the only 5 countries in the United
Nations that do not have a sustainable development goals plan.
If humanity is to thrive in the 21st century, that reality will need to change.
Social Justice Computing is dedicated to playing our part in this desperately
needed change.
Resources:
The Decidim project is a technopolitical
project which is building ICT infrastructure to support participatory
democracty. It is just the kind ICT project which social justice computing
wants to become involved.
Download a copy of
Decidim, a Technopolitical Network for
Participatory Democracy and join the conversation it is helping to
generate.
