Mapping justice as a plural and contested concept in human--computer interaction

Abstract

Human-computer interaction increasingly studies and promotes justice. Often, this work does not treat justice through a pluralistic lens Justice, however, is not one thing: political philosophy offers several well-established, mutually incompatible conceptions of it. To navigate these meanings, we draw on a map of justice, a philosophical framework identifying six distinct conceptions of justice situated throughout (Western) philosophical thought. We apply this framework to four cases that illustrate different approaches to social justice: the COMPAS system, food democracy, gentrification, and robotics. Our analysis shows that each case already reflects a position on the map, but more importantly, one might adapt the case to other conceptions as well, leading to very different systems and analyses. We discuss how HCI might engage more carefully with such contested concepts, and warn that without pluralistic understanding, academic discourse risks a spiral of silence.