Advocacy in Technology and Society

= Advocacy in Technology and Society =

Introduction
2020 brought the  inequality across society into sharper focus. COVID-19 spread across the world highlighting the inequities of disproportionate impact, response, and community preparedness. Starting in the United States, and echoed across the world, protests for racial justice and continued action for Black lives was newly galvanized across sectors of society. Economic strains and widespread unemployment raised awareness of widening wealth inequality in the US, adding new dimension to old debate about social protection and safety nets. Additionally, with most of the workforce working remotely from their homes, dependency on technology infrastructure emerged almost overnight, illuminating access disparity and the "digital divide". 2020 called for reflection and action at the intersections of social life, with technology playing a critical role in how information is consumed, produced, distributed, and controlled in the modern age.

This course is designed to build a critical foundation for understanding the role technology plays in social welfare and social change and the important role of advocates in this space. Beginning with a foundational history, this course will set the stage for the rapid technology development in the 21st century and prepares learners to actively interrogate, question, critique, and evaluate the emerging technologies.

This course considers technology and data-based systems in a social welfare context in the following ways:


 * 1) How can advocates use technology and a data-based practice to further their advocacy efforts?
 * 2) How are current and emergent technologies challenging the work, creating new barriers and harms, and how can social workers be more engaged advocates in the pursuit of better, fairer, and more just technology?

This course will provide an overview of the role that technology plays in civic engagement and social movements in the digital age, in the United States, and globally. Students will develop the ability to critically analyze technology tools in a social welfare context and make recommendations for fairer, more just tech. Students will contribute content and help build and shape an open knowledge platform through ‘a living syllabus’

Through this course, students will be able to :

 * Describe advocacy in a digital context
 * Identify the different stakeholders who affect and are affected by emerging technology
 * Articulate the role of advocates in technology development and technology in social welfare context
 * Identify current technology tools (apps, platforms, and movements) and the scope of their use
 * Analyze the social effects of emerging technologies (e.g.  discriminatory algorithms, digital marginalization, access issues)
 * Evaluate a current tech of their choosing (ie. an app/platform/movement)  from a social work framework, identifying the technology used, the challenges and social impact from the perspective of the different stakeholder groups, and identify how the technology might oppress or empower individuals or groups
 * Apply a critical analysis of power, oppression, racism, and privilege to emerging technologies
 * Contribute to open access, common knowledge platforms, build a ‘social workers in tech’ context

Course Content Development
The course content was developed by Jaclyn Sawyer and was taught synchronously at Columbia University, School of Social Work (Spring 2022).

Contributors
The students in this class contributed to each module by summarizing, synthesizing, critiquing, and adding their perspective to the material and building a "living syllabus".