In a world where data technology has the potential to create new inequalities and deepen existing discriminations, how should we respond? What are the risks and benefits of using data for decision making, especially for vulnerable groups, and how does data-driven decision-making impact the justice system itself?
Please join Dr Lina Dencik (Cardiff University) and Professor Janet Chan (UNSW Law), to explore the intricate relationship between ‘datafication’ and social justice. This discussion will be chaired by Associate Professor Tanja Dreher (UNSW, FASS).
Location: Michael Crouch Innovation Centre, UNSW (Building E10) Venue Map
About the Grand Challenge Meetups
The Grand Challenge Meetups are for the UNSW community who are interested in the Grand Challenges Program and want to join the conversation.
Dr Dencik is a Senior Lecturer at Cardiff's School of Journalism, Media and Culture and Co-Founder of the Data Justice Lab. At this event Lina will introduce a new European project on the social justice implications of datafication. She will discuss the need for 'data justice', which as a framework is intended to connote the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice by foregrounding and highlighting the politics of data-driven processes.
Lina's research concerns the interplay between media developments and social and political change, with a particular focus on resistance. Recently, she has moved into the areas of digital surveillance and the politics of data. Lina has written several articles and books, most recently, Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society (with Arne Hintz and Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Polity Press, 2018). Her current project, funded by an ERC Starting Grant, is ‘Data Justice: Understanding datafication in relation to social justice’ (DATAJUSTICE).
Find out more
Professor Chan is recognised internationally for her contributions to policing research, especially her work on police culture and socialisation, police reform, and the use of information technology in policing. Janet is currently a Professor at UNSW Law, Key Researcher at the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (D2D CRC), leader of the Data Justice stream of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and and Innovation, and leader of an ARC Linkage Academy project on using big data for social policy.
At this event Janet will discuss the potential benefits and risks of data technology for decision making, especially in relation to vulnerable groups. She will outline a research program aimed at investigating the social and political consequences of data technology and identifying ways to minimise injustices. She will argue that research has an important role to play in exposing the potential for data technology to be used in ways that create new inequalities and deepen existing discriminations, and in interrogating how we (as citizens, data subjects, and researchers) should respond.
Janet was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2002. She has held various positions in Australia, including Research Director of the NSW Judicial Commission, Director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology, Head of the School of Social Science and Policy, Professor and Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW. She was President of the UNSW Academic Board from 2008 to 2011, Associate Dean (Research) of the Law School from 2011 to 2014, and Distinguished Professor of iCinema Research Centre from 2014 to 2016. In 2015 she was the joint recipient of the ANZ Society of Criminology Distinguished Criminologist Award.
Find out more
