Inside the Tech Justice Roadtrip: inspiration and challenge

As part of our new new tech justice project, we’re working in partnership with 3 justice-led community organisations to explore what liberatory technology could look like. 

We’re using, and building on, the Tech Justice Manifesto work which was led by Siana Bangura.

Working in the open is important to us. So between now and the end of March, we’ll be building an archive of how the process has been for everyone involved. We’re doing this by regularly sharing our thoughts, ideas and learning.

What’s inspiring us: alumni, connections, new collaborations and diverse ideas

Nikita Shah, Hyphen Poetry – providing support for the project’s circle

"I’m in a space for reflection and learning. Right now, I’m inspired by finding connections in all the work I’ve done. And identifying commonalities from projects that are about equity and justice. I’m also feeling inspired by the partners we are working with, and learning more about:

• their work
• applications of tech
• tech’s impact on service users and communities more broadly."

Yasmin Farah, Head of Data and Community Knowledge at Camden Giving,  a  participatory funder based in the London borough of Camden.

Camden Giving is one of the justice-led community organisations taking part in the tech justice project. It’s researching and designing a digital decision making tool for grant making. And it’s co-designing the tool with a new community panel of young people who live in Camden. 

Yasmin: “We held a consultation session in December with 10 alumni members (people who have made funding decisions on one of our grant making panels). 

It was an evening session as that’s when people are usually available after work, school or other commitments they have during the day. Everyone showed up with an eagerness to understand more about the project, share their insights and learn from each other. 

The group enjoyed getting to know each other on an individual level, and learning more about their different experiences as panellists. 

Catalyst’s Tech Justice manifesto resonated deeply with them, and they were excited to be involved in technology design. With the amount of energy in the room, I almost couldn’t believe it was a late evening in mid-December. “

Puja Basu, Alumni Manager, Camden Giving: “Being able to find new avenues for collaboration and learning and working cross-sector.”

Zainab Ekrayem, Junior Evaluation Consultant, InFocus – leading on evaluation for the tech justice project:

“In the decolonial evaluation workshop we had in December, we were asked what success means to each member of the circle. What’s inspiring is how each circle member has different ideas, but similar goals and ambitions. This will make the evaluation very rich (at least from my perspective).”

Tech justice challenges: co-designing, digital literacy and Big Tech's removal of online safeguards

The project is ambitious in the change it seeks to ignite. We're trying to work in ways that embody the change we seek in the world.

Siana Bangura, writer, producer, performer, campaigner and community organiser – the tech justice project’s Artist/Storyteller who provides creative support to the 3 partner organisations:

“The tech justice work is live and necessary as ever. Although I feel hopeful about 2025 in many ways, I also recognise that the challenges we face as a society won't be easing up. The online space is another arena of battling against and attempting to resist dystopian tyranny. However Big Tech, such as Meta, continues to remove the tiny scraps of safeguarding in place in order to appease the misinformation squad – so shit is getting even more real.” 

Puja: “Digital inclusion and literacy remains a challenge in our field, as we work closely with communities facing deprivation and not having equitable access to technology and digital resources.”

Zainab: “When you’re co-designing an evaluation framework/process you need to make sure everyone is on the same page, and agrees to the overall direction of the work. So it takes more time and effort to finalise work.”

Nikita: “At present, I am not facing any challenges in this work. I am in a period of observing and learning. For example, I’ve been learning about sociocracy and how this can be used in the project. Grappling with the proposals has taken some time and feels quite new. But the basic premise is interesting and simple enough to follow. I’m curious to see how the team continues to navigate this form of decision making.”

New ways of working for our partners

Partners are expected to contribute to guiding the project’s direction. This includes supporting the project’s mission and values through collective governance. And making some budgeting decisions.

Nikita: “I have really enjoyed my time on the road trip so far. It’s interesting to see the groundwork (the tech justice report) come to life. There are lots of different moving parts to this project and it feels like a team effort. I’m keen to see how we continue working together. 

I feel like I’m slightly newer to Catalyst's ways of working and am not familiar with tools like Notion, so this will be learning for me. I appreciate that this process has begun with space to learn from different types of workshops and training. I do wonder how much we will be able to achieve from Feb-March once the learning spaces are over.”

Yasmin: “It's been interesting to practice sociocracy within the circle meetings, it's the first time I've experienced sociocratic governance. I was expecting Catalyst to lead the circle and project, but it's been very refreshing to be involved in shaping the direction of this work.”

Thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute to this blog.

Read more about the tech justice project in Introducing our new project: the Tech Justice Road Trip.

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Photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash

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