“Critical questions are missing”: Perspectives of environmental justice activists of Bangladesh on justice and technology

Abstract

Recent years have seen increasing interest in aligning interactive technology design and research with social justice values and practices, including those pertaining to environmental justice. These efforts can result in both innovative sociotechnical approaches to amplify environmental justice movements and resist injustices that may come about with the deployment of emerging technologies. Given the global nature of environmental injustice and the interconnectedness of their root causes and efforts to address them, it is important to understand the experiences and perspectives of activists from climate change-vulnerable Low and Middle-income Countries (LMICs). In this paper, we present findings from an interview study with five environmental justice activists in Bangladesh who share their motivations for activism, their views on the roots of injustice, the power dynamics in environmental justice activism, and their use of digital technologies for organizing, raising awareness, and coalition building. Our findings show the importance of genuine motivation and power analysis in this complex ecosystem and the potential of interactive technologies to support EJ activism.