It has been thirty years since Ursula Franklin (the first woman University Professor at the University of Toronto) delivered the 1989 CBC Massey College Lectures, The Real World of Technology, and twenty years since its expanded version was published. Describing technology as practice and as a system, Franklin encouraged us to examine the social class of experts, the changing nature of community and issues of power and control. She argued for attentiveness on how digital technologies affect relations of time and space, individual and collective responsibilities, and provided a bridge between the humanist traditions of early 20th century Europe and the technological explosion that began after WWII and the defeat of Fascism that continues to echo today.

Through this working group, we examine the intellectual legacy of Franklin and her pioneering feminist/person-centred perspectives on technology and how the themes and concerns she addressed throughout her career map onto contemporary scholarly endeavours at the University of Toronto surrounding technology and society. The group will apply a ‘Franklin-esque’ reading to issues and ethics redolent in contemporary ‘innovative’ and ‘disruptive’ technologies of datafication, algorithms and AI. We ask: what is Ursula Franklin’s impact on data discrimination, privacy, social justice, resilient communities, and equity, inclusion, and diversity? Or rather, on all of these issues and more, what would Ursula Franklin say?

Our Members Include:

—Leslie Chan (Associate Professor, Centre for Critical Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough)
—Stephanie Fielding (MI student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Saman Goudarzi (MI student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Sara Grimes (Associate Professor, Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute and Semaphore Labs, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Monica Henderson (PhD student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Katie Mackinnon (PhD student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Yasmin Mcdowell (MI student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Peter Pennefather (Professor Emeritus, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto)
—Leslie Regan Shade (Professor, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
—Kanishka Sikri (Undergraduate Student, Centre for Critical Development Studies, University of Toronto Scarborough)