Beyond Ethics: Considerations for Centering Equity-Minded Data Science

The Cultural Production of Everyday Ethics in Two University STEM Labs

“…Increasingly, scientific practitioners espouse commitments that recombine or resist these categories of moral philosophy. Especially in the last decade, calls for an ethics of social justice in science have proliferated (Alexander et al, 2022; Atenas et al, 2023; Faden & Powers, 2011; Huang & King, 2017; Mamo & Fishman, 2013; Riley & Lambrinidou, 2015; Walsh, 2015). Social justice ethics shares a virtue ethical commitment to certain abstract principles—specifically, principles such as equity, anti-racism, and harm reduction—but incorporates a deontological duty to act as well as the consequentialist mantra that “impact matters more than intent.” Social justice ethics embraces scientific life as political.…”

“…And so then we just instituted a, you know, every other week we have something dedicated to it.” For Dr. Helen, these discussions were central to the scientific work her lab group conducted. “It does matter in our field,” she said, “even if it doesn’t seem like it.” From Dr. Helen's perspective—like many scientists working today—scientific inquiry and social justice are inseparable because identity categories such as race, class, and gender are persistent realities both in and out of the lab (Alexander et al, 2022; Mamo & Fishman, 2013; Riley & Lambrinidou, 2015; Walsh, 2015). This belief was shared among many members of the Helen lab, and shaped the cultural expectations and behaviors around ethics in this research group.…”