Epistemic Injustice in Technology and Policy Design: Lessons from New York City's Heat Complaints System

Abstract

This paper brings attention to epistemic injustice, an issue that has not received much attention in the design of technology and policy. Epistemic injustices occur when individuals are treated unfairly or harmed specifically in relation to their role as knowers or possessors of knowledge. Drawing on the case of making heat complaints in New York City, this paper illustrates how both technological and policy interventions that address epistemic injustice can fail or even exacerbate the situations for certain social groups, and individuals within them. In bringing this case to the workshop, this paper hopes to provide another generative and critical dimension that can be utilised to create better technologies and policies, especially when they deal with diverse and broad range of social groups.CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Computer supported cooperative work; Collaborative and social computing devices.