Advocacy in Technology and Society/Social Work Futures

This module focuses on the intersections of social work and technology in an innovative manner.

Topic Summary

In this lecture, we watched presentations provided by Lauri Goldkind, PhD and Laura, Nissen, PhD.

Dr. Lauri Goldkind's lecture focused on topics of Data Justice, Data protection, Racial justice and technology, and Design Justice. The social work future includes bringing technology into human services. She brought up a question: How can social workers leverage different technological tools for making human services? She used an article, The biggest lie on the Internet: ignoring the privacy policies and terms of service policies of social networking services , to argue that many online platforms which promotes therapy is not taking responsibility for the therapy. Social workers need to make clients understand the importance of End User Agreement (EULA) and the Terms of Service (TOS) and make them understand what they are signing on. In addition, Dr. Lauri Goldkind introduced concept of data justice, created by Lynette Taylor, including visibility, engagement with technology, and non-discrimination.

Through Dr. Nissen's lecture, she encouraged students to use social work think in post normal time. She also brought up ideas on the future of issues, such as social change, work, organizational life, cities, technology, climate, etc. She led an interesting question of, "Who will decide the future of social work would look like?", and introduced the website of Social Work Futures. Students are encouraged to learn organizations that challenge big tech and promote ethical tech.

Here are some learning materials recommended by Dr. Goldkind and Dr. Nissen:

Social Work Futures

This website explores how social workers can increase their impact through futures frameworks. It covers contents on About Laura, Background, Recent Presentations and Talks, Some Favorite Future Voices, and What is Futures Thinking.

The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy

In The Distance Cure, Hannah Zeavin proposes a reconfiguration of the traditional therapeutic dyad of therapist and patient as a triad: therapist, patient, and communication technology. Zeavin tracks the history of teletherapy (therapeutic interaction over distance) and its metamorphosis from a model of cure to one of contingent help. She describes its initial use in ongoing care, its role in crisis intervention and symptom management, and our pandemic-mandated reliance on regular Zoom sessions. Her account of the “distanced intimacy” of the therapeutic relationship offers a powerful rejoinder to the notion that contact across distance (or screens) is always less useful, or useless, to the person seeking therapeutic treatment or connection.

At the same time, these modes of care can quickly become a backdoor for surveillance and disrupt ethical standards important to the therapeutic relationship. The history of the conventional therapeutic scenario cannot be told in isolation from its shadow form, teletherapy. Therapy, Zeavin tells us, was never just a “talking cure”; it has always been a communication cure.

Here is a recommended reading material:Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

This book is written by Ruja Benjamin, a professor in the Department of African American studies at Princeton University. It addresses how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity. Ruja Benjamin argues that automation has the potential to "hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era." Presenting the concept of the “New Jim Code,” Ruja Benjamin shows how discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of technology, designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice in the architecture of everyday life.

Insights

Insights on Lauri Goldkind, PhD and Laura, Nissen, PhD.

The presenter argued that many online platforms which promote therapy are not taking responsibility for the therapy. The reason people seek therapy is because they are in discomfort, which means they are already suffering, and to add additional digital burdens may be counter-productive. The therapist should make sure and make it clear what the clients are getting into by agreeing to their terms and conditions. Clients should be made aware of what will happen to the data, and what is the risk associated with sharing it on an online platform. We understand that being transparent with the clients goes beyond being ethical. The therapist would not want to see that more harm was done to the clients by seeking the therapy. It should be the client's self- determination to be comfortable with the technology, but it should not be used primarily because the therapist would have easy access to reach out to the clients.

Insights on Social Work Futures Website

When we think about Social Work in a traditional setting, it is common for the general public to think about Child Protective Services removing children from parents. The dynamics of social workers have changed significantly. Now, social workers can be found working for the government, corporate, INGOs and NGOs, in disaster relief missions, at domestic violence shelters, with the police departments, in the military and the list goes on. So what does the future hold for social workers? We believe that this website has provided a glimpse of where and in what roles social workers can find themselves in the future. We understand that future of social work is an important prospect. For instance, if someone is interested in technology and also cares for social impact, this website will provide that person on how technology and social work can go hand in hand. The website has the potential to inspire people to be involved in the changing dynamics of social work. We cherished the idea that the website acknowledges that future cannot be predictable however, it has highlighted that as social workers are planners, they can plan for a more equitable society.

Insights on The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy

This book highlights an important notion that is often swept under the rug. We have been praising on all fronts that remote access to services has been handy. Recently we have been seeing an increase in advertisements prompting us to seek therapy online, but are they effective as in-person therapy? We do not want to convey the message that remote services are not productive. In some technical fields, they might be effective, however in professions where human emotions and interactions are a major part of interventions, services performed through remote means might be futile. We admit that virtual sessions get the job done easily, in dire scenarios, technology might even help avert crisis situations, but just for the sake of easiness, we should not take away the essence of human connection from therapies by being virtual.

Insights on Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

We have been trained in such a way that anything related to race and racialization seems more of a political matter. We tend to believe that technology and science are exclusive matters regarding race and racialization. We admired the idea that this book helps to explain how the technologies that we have been using are perpetuating White supremacy. One basic example is the use of facial recognition in surveillance of Black Lives Matter protestors by the FBI. The use of technology to stop a race from exercising their First Amendment Right might be the tip of the iceberg. This practice can far go beyond surveillance but also on the allocation of resources which will divide already strained inequality in the society. Not only does this technology target marginalized folks, but it also has the potential to errors that will result in the wrongful criminalization of innocent civilians, which we have already witnessed in our cities. The positive light that we have seen is that grassroots levels organizations are advocating for restricting the use of facial recognization technologies.

What does advocacy look like?

Social workers need to help the most vulnerable populations, who have limited access with services delivered on digital platforms. For examples, social workers can serve these these vulnerable populations by providing informational sessions to help them understand the terms of service agreement and user agreement.

Additionally, social workers need to challenge companies, or large organizations to advocate for more clear practices on data usage, collection, terms of service agreement, user agreement. Social workers should also challenge the encoded bias and racism in technological innovations. This can help to advocate and promote ethical tech.

In addition, Technology can be an important tool to protect the vulnerable population in the future as it will be important to protect vulnerable populations from the technology itself. Technology can be a boom, it might help a financially struggling student to finance his/her study by enabling a part-time job through Uber or in a similar manner, or it could doom a mass who are in the realm of surveillance because of utilizing the right to free speech by the authority. Social Workers and advocates should act as vigilantes to deter technology from attempting to harm vulnerable and marginalized people in many ways. Social workers should advocate at every level of government to protect these populations against digital harm. It is in the social worker's competencies to be engaged in practice-informed research and research-informed practice. Future social workers should invest in enriching their competencies by research and education on every changing dynamic of the society that has the potential to benefit the society as well as may harm the society. The emerging issues need to be researched and understood by the social work domain to be able to prevent any harm by being the representation of the marginalized population and being the voice of the voiceless.

Annotated References

From park bench to lab bench. What kind of future are we designing? (2015)

Ruja Benjamin shared three stories of discriminatory designs. She suggests that the interests and the concerns of those people with power and privilege should not govern the decisions that affect everyone.She urges for more inclusive design and inspires the audience to think, "whose voices are missing?", and "who we expect to be at the table and not just on the table." The futures will be shaped by who we are consulting, who are participating, who is thought important to get us there.

Imagining the Future: The Transformation of Humanity

Peter Diamandis shares how society is heading towards a human-scale transformation. A future where people are highly connected, sharing ideas, knowledge and actions. Peter highlights 4 driving forces as well as 4 steps that transform humanity.

Teaching Note—Preparing Social Workers for the Digital Future of Social Work Practice

The purpose of this teaching note is to highlight the need to prepare social work students for practice using ICT during and beyond COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt shift in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in practice. The pre-pandemic use of informal ICT was already ubiquitous in social work practice. The purpose of this teaching note is to highlight that social work education must prepare students for practice using ICT during COVID-19 and beyond. Incorporated are findings from an international study on informal ICT use before COVID-19, which confirmed its ubiquity in social work, underscoring the need to educate and prepare social workers to use ICTs. Six knowledge areas important for social work education related to ICT use are discussed: integrating theoretical foundations; ethical considerations; confidentially and documentation; access and equity; risk assessment and management; and supervision and policy.

COVID-19 was a major event that required an abrupt shift in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in many professions including social work. The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of information and communication technology. https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/doi/full/10.1080/10437797.2021.1912676

Annotated References: Faye Mishna, Jane E. Sanders, Karen M. Sewell & Elizabeth Milne (2021) Teaching Note—Preparing Social Workers for the Digital Future of Social Work Practice, Journal of Social Work Education, 57:sup1, 19-26, DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2021.1912676