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Marx proposed that capitalism’s destructive force is caused, at root, by the alienation of labor value from its generators. Environmentalists have added the concept of unalienated ecological value, and rights activists added the unalienated expressive value of free speech, sexuality, spirituality, etc. Marx’s vision for restoring an unalienated world by top-down economic governance was never fulfilled. But in the last 30 years, new forms of social justice have emerged that operate as “bottom-up”. Peer-to-peer production such as open source software or wikipedia has challenged the corporate grip on IP in a “gift exchange” of labor value; community based agroecology establishes a kind of gift exchange with our nonhuman allies in nature. DIY citizenship from feminist makerspaces to queer biohacking has profound implications for a new materialism of the “knowledge commons”; and restorative approaches to civil rights can challenge the prison-industrial complex. In contrast to top-down “distributive justice,” all of the above are cases of bottom-up or “generative justice”
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, Revista Teknokultura Vol. 13 !"##
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.&%//'/0&.&/123/&4/-/&"5*#+
An Introduction to Generative Justice
Una introducción a la justicia generativa

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
eglash@rpi.edu
ABSTRACT
 
                         
       
                          
 !"#
           $ %  &             
'   (& $%
)' 
*(+,'-'
$'%)
               (      
$#%$#%
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## !
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
KEYWORDS
*(+))-)')
RESUMEN
-,.
/#-01
/  
/1
2,/#
   3 4!"5  
#, #1 / 
6'
&(2  
#) 0 
,7.0 
-
     4) 
/      # 
-708#8-
# # 89 :8;9:< -
.#
PALABRAS CLAVE
*(+))')0)0-
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
+ 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
CONTENTS
= :
> 7?#
! :9@&
A B
C 
CONTENIDOS
= 1/
> 7?#
! 9:/
A B/
C 
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## +
Acknowledgement
@''D3E
*:"FAGFH"'
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
($#
        I        '          %  6  
 ,                         
  ?              $  #%    
 !" #
 $%J'
?
     '  $ % ? 
 7 # ? '
$'%
  7  $'% I
' ' I  
!*$*(+%, 
'-),
?
))@
'#?
#
:   #        #          )         
K'  
'   ( ' 
# ?
                       #      
       7
        ,        $      %
 $% $#%   
':#
                        @     
  #)  ,
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177)8) 39'% !"## +
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
1. Generating unalienated value
($%'
 ''  

@ '  
E '      ? 
3'K$%)'
L(*7&,,@7@B
L7*'*7 (
'-M3'
     
 (
$%7
$%
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%@
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?$(
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   %; G"< P ,   
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6)
(
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
+# 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
I
  I    3                  +
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

                 =
            $                 
                       7       
'%
;=FGQ Q!GQ!H< 3N 
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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,  O            ,          9  
 (-    @
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
$%C)
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,  ' 
;B V  >"="<     -@   
7E>
D7
@=""""
 ,,I
!   ,      I          
K  I      ,          
           ;  E       >"=C<  B   
1  ,           '        
I  ) ,)  '
I;R
<-;
<     ; >""><
,$%
;P>""H<?
    (   :          M  (    M
! @     
   '
                         ;W  =FFQ)
7'VJ>""G)>"=!<
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
+* 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
(M'
'M@-
                    
D6 S
A
E(:S!?71(D7@*T71S(DE7L@B7&(@71(3
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$%
A @E-#
$%;1>"=Q<
  3
-    D6
 )   ;7 
- >"=C <)               &    ,  
    E      -                       
  
  7    K     D
7;>"=!)>"=!<
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## +!
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
 (-   
?        #I          I
          #                
,(
#;>"=Q<()(
,
(!RE=
RI'
     '             '     I   
'E!
              6        
        $%    $%      '      ?  
  $  %                  ')  
I@
    ?                             
MB
;A<
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7D+
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
* 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
T,      ' 
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 ?   )  
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2. Arduino: a case study in generative justice
P    #  (-;=<   
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
('   B *;>""Q<   
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'?(
  '              '            ,  ;>" =!<
    K  
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(                          
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%;'VD>"=A<
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      :
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  ( )  '
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(&;(&<R
F &B:&(>"=A3'EB
??\\'\\
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
*# 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
&          (  '      K      3  
        ;  <            
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-',
&(&
((&,="3'E
   '  
E?
(3'E3>""G
-
'7R'
((
('6(
(''C
((3'E]
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        
#?  :
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=" 3  3'E  BJ  D  3    =  >"=!        ;  
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
== ?\\'\\CF=G! 3 ?\\'\\=QCA  ) 
        '                    3'E      -  
3#$%
#3'E K 
    , 
' @  ' '   7
$(L%P BS7'
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## *5
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
!"I:DS
 I'#

@,7$%=FQ"
?   >"=A =>  ;J>"=A<)  
 $%; >"=!< J   
          #  
67
  ?  ;7 
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;' >"=A<92:/,.-, (@ 
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    
?*(+!$
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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                     ( 
''-
;<#
:#'7
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-
  @   3  3         &      B  ;     
3 <    '                    D  +'    3
E?''
@]@
7)'
              6      
  =>    -
   B]
'      3,          
;:>"=C<
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  ' ?>"=C7  
  7 
      $7%      3
=> 1 ;>"=C<  >""F >"==  B  
' (
1 K6'
'
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
     
 , 7&3
$:%
   7@ ' 
R       
?1E7;
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    $
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B7R)B>"=!<
1                    
                      
9K=!9K
      
  # =A  @             #            
9K I '  
  ( 
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)     ( 
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;$&%<  $%   #  ' 
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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:       7 
 ?'D :/,
.-,       1 E    
@ *   @   
  :/,.-,        
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             K    7  
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
 #-

3. Generative Justice as a Transformative Process
@   ' , &;>""=<
 =G(' 
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$%?
  ' ;3V 3=FHC) P=FFG< & 
'')
& 
$%B
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;B>"=Q<
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;>"=A<?
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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
  '  ( =F 
 &
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`
%;=CA<    #
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K
    #J'       
Q)
      '      
  @- 
 I                 
I
Non-humans in the circulation of unalienated value
67'
      :  9          $  %)
$ %$ %' 6 
$%

$%)
#,
    \    
$%
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## !
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
$%;&'=FFC<
    ' 
'
@                       
;P=FHA<
 $% ;3>"=><
$%
                    
3'$%;$%< 
 $%    ;JD
>""F<J7;>"=C<
$  -  %J 
,#
              &      1   
        =Q E    P  ;=FFG<  
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7(*3            ?       ,    
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#

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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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6]
;<?
      
;B =FHQ &' =FFC)  >"=")  >"=><     
$%    $%
  ;P>"=C< 6'   ;>"=C<   '  

(
:     
J
        R      #I    
I
,, ( 
   
      $    %  ;  V  :  >"=A<  @      ,
-?
 
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'
@    K            #  -  
$%;&'<
@J;>"="<
 B &;B&< (   D 
                  
,               K           
          6          
;>""><B&'?$
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
%I'I
                  P      
B&I
$%',I
#7J?
                                

7  ;>""A <                     
            7             '
                  
$%$% 
$%     
II
        7              
)
       ]  
@#B
$%D
   K)   
(B@;DVB>"=A<
4. Conclusion
(?7# 
?   
B

B
I   I   
 E   

R@
      
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
!# 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
; <   
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$%$%
      ;          <M  :  
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';6
>""H<    '    
  M6   
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\  (   
?
            @      '    
  -?    '              
#  MP
.&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+ 3%5#! 
177)8) 39'% !"## !5
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
              ;*  B  >""F)  '  V
'  >"=C)  @  >"=!<              
,M3I'
                  7I    
$%                      K
;M<@
   - 
#
3%5#!  .&%//04/5!/6123 5*#+
! 177)8) 39'% !"##
An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
5. References
77JD3JD37;>"="<PB& @&?B
11123!3
43(7K@:6S 

b?\\\c\\\\7^((&6&>"="==d
7(LDP7*:3VJ:767;>""G<(L3
4425;!<C!FeQ>"
717(J3 ;>"="< 6!7+41 21 84 ?
(S&
7117 +:L(3@11:S@7L67L(@BPD93(@PJVB17L7;>"=C<
7(7&P?&
&eB'&92:;=C"eCG
71@((    7  ;>""A<  7    ?        
             -     21
2<43!2243=3H>H
7D:1(D3;>"=C< :?U 7   9 3
1>?;><!A=!CA
7DL3;>""Q<B6'4!A";!<ACCeG>
77*L;>"=><DOU&1*.=>>CC!
DL1+;>"=!<&7?&'&E3
34!>;><>=!>C=
DD@@9 3@7D: D V *7*J 7 ;>"=C<    ( 6'M
B E & 3 SL* 7(9 VD3
;< 8  +    &  @        @M  ;  =!F=CH<
1?
DD@@9 ;>"="< "8+ 32!   *DB1?
*'S&
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 @95A1>!FeG=
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177)8) 39'% !"## !+
4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
SBP1+1V P(11  ;>"="< 1&   6?PP 1 @
3  D      *  B  ( 3    
4!;*(3<;=FF>"G<7*'
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3@'9
B711JD;=FHQ<33@?*3
 E 3  (19;< 3&1  6+7&
4!B&;=FQe>!!<1?VL&
B7JD9:( 3JDLVP(117;>"=A<BPB?
    B  E      7      & 
2C;;=<==He=!>
B7& 11  3  L  V S@1  T1  ;>"="<  7          &
D   cGC"" 
2!4!CD;=<=G>F
BPJ&73V3BJ@@*;>""Q<@&J33
9 !1B&4!=;G<
B(BJ3 ;>"=!7==<7  171E 7
=2
b?\\\d
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J33*!>A;!<A>"ACA
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373=;=<=C
*1B73(DJT;>""F<4*!+D+?96V3
*3(:D JJ;>"=!<7f* 
b?\\\\d
*SD 7P3@B ;>"=A<(M 17 @*(+(
V ;<E+848B
7?(@&
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An Introduction to Generative Justice 4).
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
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4). An Introduction to Generative Justice
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... For the purposes of this paper we focus on the distinction between what we term "superficial appearances"the kinds of keywords most vulnerable to utilization in deceptionand "deep content" that could be used to better identify more egalitarian and sustainable relationships between consumption and production. In doing so we hope to make search engines a better tool for achieving what has been referred to as a relational economy (Mhlambi 2020), ubuntu ethics (Birhane 2021) or generative justice (Eglash 2016). Because conscientious searchers care about deep contentthe authentic product attributes that are often overlooked or whitewashed in standard marketing strategiesthey instinctively want authentic descriptions. ...
... As a research question, we consider an interested nonexpert user that would like to conduct an exploratory search for two separate but culturally important topics: supply chains in Detroit and African art. Because of their pervasiveness, this user is interested in using search engines in a move towards the relational economy, specifically of generative practices (Eglash 2016), but largely does not know where to begin. This user can be viewed as exploratory searchers looking for expert knowledge that they know little about. ...
... To express the relational economy aspects of artisan entrepreneur work we turn to an STS concept, Generative Justice (Eglash 2016). Generative Justice is defined as the right "to generate unalienated value and directly participate in its benefits; the rights of value generators to create their own conditions of production; and the rights of communities of value generation to nurture self-sustaining paths for its circulation" (Eglash 2016, p. 382). ...
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Search engine algorithms are increasingly subjects of critique, with evidence indicating their role in driving polarization, exclusion, and algorithmic social harms. Many proposed solutions take a top-down approach, with experts proposing bias-corrections. A more participatory approach may be possible, with those made vulnerable by algorithmic unfairness having a voice in how they want to be “found.” By using a mixed methods approach, we sought to develop search engine criteria from the bottom-up. In this project we worked with a group of 16 African American artisanal entrepreneurs in Detroit Michigan, with a majority female and all from low-income communities. Through regular in-depth interviews with select participants, they highlighted their important services, identities and practices. We then used causal set relations with natural language processing to match queries with their qualitative narratives. We refer to this two-step process-- deliberately focusing on social groups with unaddressed needs, and carefully translating narratives to computationally accessible forms--as a “content aware” approach. The resulting content aware search outcomes place themes that participants value, in particular greater relationality, much earlier in the list of results when compared with a standard Web search. More broadly, our use of participatory design with “content awareness” adds evidence to the importance of addressing algorithmic bias by considering who gets to address it; and, that participatory search engine criteria can be modeled as robust linkages between interviews and semantic similarity using causal set relations.
... For the purposes of this paper we focus on the distinction between what we term "superficial appearances"--the kinds of keywords most vulnerable to utilization in deception--and "deep content" that could be used to better identify more egalitarian and sustainable relationships between consumption and production. In doing so we hope to make search engines a better tool for achieving what has been referred to as a relational economy [10], ubuntu ethics [11] or generative justice [12]. Because conscientious searchers care about deep content--the authentic product attributes that are often overlooked or whitewashed in standard marketing strategies-they instinctively want authentic descriptions. ...
... As a research question, we consider an interested non-expert user that would like to conduct an exploratory search for two separate but culturally important topics: supply chains in Detroit and African art. Because of their pervasiveness, this user is interested in using search engines in a move towards the relational economy, specifically of generative practices [12], but largely does not know where to begin. This user can be viewed as exploratory searchers looking for expert knowledge that they know little about. ...
... To express the relational economy aspects of artisan entrepreneur work we turn to a STS concept, Generative Justice [12]. Generative Justice is defined as the right "to generate unalienated value and directly participate in its benefits; the rights of value generators to create their own conditions of production; and the rights of communities of value generation to nurture self-sustaining paths for its circulation" [12]. ...
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Search engine algorithms are increasingly subjects of critique, with evidence indicating their role in driving polarization, exclusion, and algorithmic social harms. Many proposed solutions take a top-down approach, with experts proposing bias-corrections. A more participatory approach may be possible, with those made vulnerable by algorithmic unfairness having a voice in how they want to be "found." By using a mixed methods approach, we sought to develop search engine criteria from the bottom-up. In this project we worked with a group of 16 African American artisanal entrepreneurs in Detroit Michigan, with a majority female and all from low-income communities. Through regular in-depth interviews with select participants, they highlighted their important services, identities and practices. We then used causal set relations with natural language processing to match queries with their qualitative narratives. We refer to this two-step process-deliberately focusing on social groups with unaddressed needs, and carefully translating narratives to computationally accessible forms-as a "content aware" approach. The resulting content aware search outcomes place themes that participants value, in particular greater relationality, much earlier in the list of results when compared with a standard Web search. More broadly, our use of participatory design with "content awareness" adds evidence to the importance of addressing algorithmic bias by considering who gets to address it; and, that participatory search engine criteria can be modeled as robust linkages between interviews and semantic similarity using causal set relations.
... Attempting to correct that by imposing redistribution from the top down, after extraction, is often unhelpful: USSR, Cuba, China, and other communist states have had poverty, pollution and civil rights destruction at least as bad as high-inequality capitalism (Eberstadt 2017). The solution we propose is to avoid extraction altogether, and develop advanced technologies, including AI, that enable contemporary versions of generative justice (Eglash 2016;Eglash et al 2024). If AI's economic power is centralized in the hands of large corporations or authoritarian states, its control over markets, jobs, land use, and other dimensions of social existence could make macro-level policies irrelevant. ...
... Thus our own research in Nayebare et al. (2023) examines another strategy altogether, using a case study on African artists, crafters and designers. The ubuntu-AI platform, like the artisanal futures project in Detroit, is based on generative justice (Eglash 2016). It examines how to use AI to both prevent value extraction and expand unalienated value circulation, such that emergent diversification is enhanced. ...
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One of the challenges facing AI governance is the need for multiple scales. Universal human rights require a global scale. If someone asks AI if education is harmful to women, the answer should be “no” regardless of their location. But economic democratization requires local control: if AI’s power over an economy is dictated by corporate giants or authoritarian states, it may degrade democracy’s social and environmental foundations. AI democratization, in other words, needs to operate across multiple scales. Nature allows the multiscale flourishing of biological systems through fractal distributions. In this paper, we show that key elements of the fractal scaling found in nature can be applied to the AI democratization process. We begin by looking at fractal trees in nature and applying similar analytics to tree representations of online conversations. We first examine this application in the context of OpenAI’s “Democratic Inputs” projects for globally acceptable policies. We then look at the advantages of independent AI ownership at local micro-levels, reporting on initial outcomes for experiments with AI and related technologies in community-based systems. Finally, we offer a synthesis of the two, micro and macro, in a multifractal model. Just as nature allows multifractal systems to maximize biodiverse flourishing, we propose a combination of community-owned AI at the micro-level, and globally democratized AI policies at the macro-level, for a more egalitarian and sustainable future.
... With so much technological momentum (Hughes, 1994), altering this trajectory will require systemic change, upending wealth inequality and its stratification by geography, identity, and other social markers. Yet the best-known alternative-the socialist replacement of capitalism with state ownership-has, at least in the majority of historical cases, been marked by very similar kinds of wealth inequality and environmental harm (Eglash, 2016(Eglash, , 2018Mazurski, 1991). For that reason (and others), the field of design is increasingly a site for the search for alternative futures. ...
... We can view these strategies as limited forms of counter-hegemonic resistance, but they can also be the starting point for more transformative visions in which the entire economy is reengineered for egalitarian, unalienated value circulation, referred to as a "generative economy" (Eglash, 2016;Eglash et al., 2020) or "commons-based peer production" (Bauwens & Pantazis, 2018). Experiments towards that vision include aspects of the gift economy such as open source, as well as barter, timebanks, local currency, and even ordinary monetary exchanges as long as they are structured in ways that best enable local flourishing. ...
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Transformative improvements require systemic change in an economy marked by extreme wealth inequality, stratified by geography, identity, and other social markers. In this chapter, we seek to raise awareness in the technology, design, and scientific communities of the long history of artisans—skilled, independent labor striving to keep a relatively unalienated workplace—that can offer a crucial resource to those interested in designing for a liberated economy. It is a resource as a history of counter-hegemonic movements and identities organized around technology. But it is also a potential site for participatory design, solidarity design and other methods for co-developing innovative strategies by which automation can support the rise of an unalienated economy. Rather than simply a throwback to a romantic past, artisans offer a present-day space for understanding work as a liberated form of expression and a locus for technological innovation grounded in just and sustainable ways of life.
... We need AI that is truly democratic, sustainable, ethically constrained, and committed to economic and political justice today, for that is the AI we must have for any kind of just and sustainable tomorrow. As the Generative Justice movement shows, we can produce new and powerful technologies that are just and sustainable through democratic processes (Eglash 2016). If we do it today, we prefigure a hopeful tomorrow. ...
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This chapter first asks, is victory possible? For Israel it is not. Then it looks at the deeper issues raised by “The Trap of Terrorism” and the growing danger of Israel’s expanded regional war (military operations in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran) leading to the possibility of “General War.” The role of technology in these escalations is clear, so that leads to question “Can AI Be Controlled?” Looking first at military AI and then the whole field, it seems probably not. The chapter ends with an explanation of how this conflict, and the driving dynamics of high-tech and ancient myths, could produce the Torture of Gaza with nothing but “The Paradox of Hope” to sustain us.
... We need AI that is truly democratic, sustainable, ethically constrained, and committed to economic and political justice today, for that is the AI we must have for any kind of just and sustainable tomorrow. As the Generative Justice movement shows, we can produce new and powerful technologies that are just and sustainable through democratic processes (Eglash 2016). If we do it today, we prefigure a hopeful tomorrow. ...
... And in unalienated social value, communities circulate forms of solidarity, conviviality, democratic decision making and other material and immaterial public goods that sustain both individual freedoms and collective action. Hence the definition of generative justice (Eglash, 2016): ...
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The Latin roots of the word reparations are "re" (again) plus "parere" which means "to give birth to, bring into being, pro-duce". Together they mean "to make generative once again". In this sense, the extraction processes that cause labor injustice, ecological devastation, and social degradation cannot be repaired by simply transferring money. Reparations need to take on the full sense of "restorative": the transition to a decolonial system that can support value generators in the control of their own systems of production, protect the value they create from extraction, and circulate value in unalienated forms that benefit the human and non-human communities that produced that value. With funding from the National Science Foundation, we have developed a research framework for this process that starts with "artisanal labor": employee-owned business and worker collectives that have people doing what they love, despite low incomes. Focusing primarily on Detroit's Black-owned urban farms, artisanal textile businesses, Black hair salons, worker collectives, and other community-based production, with additional connections to Indigenous and other communities, we have introduced digital fabrication technologies, sensors, artificial intelligence, server-side apps and other computational support for a transition to unalienated circular value flow. We will report on our investigations with the challenges at multiple scales. At each level, we show how computational supports can act as restorative mechanisms for lost circular value flows, and thus address both past and ongoing disenfranchisement.
... It is possible to instead create designs that support a generative economy. Eglash (2016) defines this principle as "generative justice": ...
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be a threat to creative arts and design, taking data and images without permission or compensation. But with AI becoming a global portal for human knowledge access, anyone resisting inclusion in its data inputs will become invisible to its outputs. This is the AI double bind, in which the threat of exclusion forces us to give up any claims of ownership to our creative endeavors. To address such problems, this project develops an experimental platform designed to return value to those who create it, using a case study on African arts and design. If successful, it will allow African creatives to work with AI instead of against it, creating new opportunities for funding, gaining wider dissemination of their work, and creating a database for machine learning that results in more inclusive knowledge of African arts and design for AI outputs.
... • Environmental: the DO improves the environment without harming it. • Economical: the DO permits value to return to all actors in the system thereby yielding "generative justice" (Eglash 2016). • Ecological: the DO contributes to the healthy balance of the social ecosystem. ...
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Research in the knowledge systems of indigenous societies can be hampered by both cultural and technological assumptions. We see these assumptions at work in many popular television documentaries, where one hears of the " vanishing native " who " lived at one with nature. " Such portraits come from good intentions; but they only serve to further the stereotype of indigenous peoples as historically isolated, alive only in a static past. The idea of " living close to nature " implies concrete rather than abstract thinking, a simplistic " primitive " society taking only the first steps up a supposed ladder of progress. We need to take special efforts to open our eyes to the dynamic histories and technological sophistication of indigenous cultures-for example, to think about active indigenous ecological knowledge rather than the passive portraits we so often hear, e.g. " Indians lived as part of the ecosystem. " Rather than the illusion of a frozen pre-colonial tradition, we need to see indigenous societies as having always been in a state of change, and to understand more recent features of Native American life as part of that history. Steven J. Gould (1981) describes how biological evolution [1] used to be thought of as a single ladder of progress, but is now seen as a " copiously branching bush. " In the same way, contemporary anthropologists now see cultural evolution as a branching diversity of forms. While European societies may have followed one particular sequence in the development of mathematics, other cultures might have developed mathematical ideas along very different lines. Rather than assuming that Native American mathematics must be restricted to simple counting systems or geometric forms, we should be open to any mathematical pattern that appears, including those which are embedded, emergent, or obscured by difficulties in translation to their western counterparts. Equally important, we should strive to show the interrelationships among such culturally embedded mathematical concepts. This essay will attempt to show how such an approach can open new possibilities through computation, complexity and coding in Native American knowledge systems.
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Resumen As educators and researchers, the authors of this paper participated, at different points in time, in a National Science Foundation funded research program to place culturally responsive education into generative justice frameworks. We discovered that the mechanisms to create generative contexts—contexts where value can possibly be returned to the community where the people generating that value live and work—in-school, after-school, and not-school were not uniform and required individual attention and care. One can think of generative contexts as the educational preconditions for generative justice. We aim to show how generative contexts are crucial to understanding a larger theory of generative justice. To do this we provide three examples of generative contexts. First is a generative context in-school, where a technology teacher brought a community hairstylist into her classroom to help teach computer programming through cornrow braiding; a skill relevant to her African American students. Next is a generative context after-school where a student demonstrates soldering skills that she learned from family members. The third is a not-school “E-Waste to Makerspace” workshop where students created garden-technology designs for low-income communities.
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In this article, Karen Barad entertains the possibility of the queerness of one of the most pervasive of all critters – atoms. These “ultraqueer” critters with their quantum quotidian qualities queer queerness itself in their radically deconstructive ways of being. Given that queer is a radical questioning of identity and binaries, including the nature/culture binary, this article aims to show that all sorts of seeming impossibilities are indeed possible, including the queerness of causality, matter, space, and time. What if queerness were understood to reside not in the breech of nature/culture, per se, but in the very nature of spacetimemattering, Barad asks. This article also considers questions of ethics and justice, and in particular, examines the ways in which moralism insists on having its way with the nature/culture divide. Barad argues that moralism, feeds off of human exceptionalism, and, in particular, human superiority and causes injury to humans and nonhumans alike, is a genetic carrier of genocidal hatred, and undermines ecologies of diversity necessary for flourishing.
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This paper outlines a new approach to the study of power, that of the sociology of translation. Starting from three principles, those of agnosticism, generalised symmetry and free association, the paper describes a scientigc and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population. Four "moments" of translation are discerned in the attempts by these researchers to impose themselves and their degnition of the situation on others: Z) problematization-the researchers sought to become indispensable to other actors in the drama by degning the nature and the problems of the latter and then suggesting that these would be resolved if the actors negotiated the "obligatory passage point" of the researchers' program of investigation; G) interessemen- A series of processes by which the researchers sought to lock the other actors into the roles that had been proposed for them in that program; 3) enrolment- A set of strategies in which the researchers sought to degne and interrelate the various roles they had allocated to others; 4) mobilization- A set of methods used by the researchers to ensure that supposed spokesmen for various relevant collectivities were properly able to represent those collectivities and not betrayed by the latter. In conclusion, it is noted that translation is a process, never a completed accomplishment, and it may (as in the empirical case considered) fail.
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How social media and DIY communities have enabled new forms of political participation that emphasize doing and making rather than passive consumption. Today, DIY—do-it-yourself—describes more than self-taught carpentry. Social media enables DIY citizens to organize and protest in new ways (as in Egypt's “Twitter revolution” of 2011) and to repurpose corporate content (or create new user-generated content) in order to offer political counternarratives. This book examines the usefulness and limits of DIY citizenship, exploring the diverse forms of political participation and “critical making” that have emerged in recent years. The authors and artists in this collection describe DIY citizens whose activities range from activist fan blogging and video production to knitting and the creation of community gardens. Contributors examine DIY activism, describing new modes of civic engagement that include Harry Potter fan activism and the activities of the Yes Men. They consider DIY making in learning, culture, hacking, and the arts, including do-it-yourself media production and collaborative documentary making. They discuss DIY and design and how citizens can unlock the black box of technological infrastructures to engage and innovate open and participatory critical making. And they explore DIY and media, describing activists' efforts to remake and reimagine media and the public sphere. As these chapters make clear, DIY is characterized by its emphasis on “doing” and making rather than passive consumption. DIY citizens assume active roles as interventionists, makers, hackers, modders, and tinkerers, in pursuit of new forms of engaged and participatory democracy. Contributors Mike Ananny, Chris Atton, Alexandra Bal, Megan Boler, Catherine Burwell, Red Chidgey, Andrew Clement, Negin Dahya, Suzanne de Castell, Carl DiSalvo, Kevin Driscoll, Christina Dunbar-Hester, Joseph Ferenbok, Stephanie Fisher, Miki Foster, Stephen Gilbert, Henry Jenkins, Jennifer Jenson, Yasmin B. Kafai, Ann Light, Steve Mann, Joel McKim, Brenda McPhail, Owen McSwiney, Joshua McVeigh-Schultz, Graham Meikle, Emily Rose Michaud, Kate Milberry, Michael Murphy, Jason Nolan, Kate Orton-Johnson, Kylie A. Peppler, David J. Phillips, Karen Pollock, Matt Ratto, Ian Reilly, Rosa Reitsamer, Mandy Rose, Daniela K. Rosner, Yukari Seko, Karen Louise Smith, Lana Swartz, Alex Tichine, Jennette Weber, Elke Zobl