Digital Technologies and the Advancement of Social Justice: A Framework and Agenda

In this introduction to the special issue, we propose a framework for researching the interplay between digital technologies and social justice, which offers a unique and fruitful opportunity for information systems (IS) researchers to make contributions to theory and practice, with meaningful policy impacts. The framework draws upon prior definitions and typologies of social justice, previous IS research on social justice, and the studies included in this special issue. The framework positions digital technologies as playing key roles in revealing, orchestrating, enabling, and inhibiting social justice. We also propose theoretical arguments on how social justice phenomena can reshape the design of digital technologies and the manner in which they are used. We draw attention to the tensions that arise from the interplay between digital technologies and social justice and how digital technologies can be designed towards advancing social justice, urging future research to address these fundamental issues. Lastly, we chronicle how this special issue was developed and organized and what efforts we made towards a diversity of perspectives and the inclusion of a variety of voices in the special issue.