Category: Ethics Through Design – Lectures

  • A Route Out Of Permacrisis? The Informational Right To The City

    A Route Out Of Permacrisis? The Informational Right To The City

    Prof. Monika Buscher, Sociology Department, Lancaster University.

    Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s notion of the (informational) right to the city, I explore what we can do to make data commons and what action such data commons could allow. I ask how this could help build response-ability in a world in climate and related permacrisis, tracing forms of resistance, opportunities for design, and grassroots efforts.

    Monika Büscher is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University and co-director of isITethical? Exchange. She co-edits the book series Changing Mobilities. Monika currently leads research on decarbonising transport, disaster mobilities and ethical, legal and social issues of IT innovation in a range of different projects.

  • The Westernizing Dream: Semiotics of AI and Technological Colonialism

    The Westernizing Dream: Semiotics of AI and Technological Colonialism

    Dr Luke Moffat, Sociology Department, Trustworthy Autonomous Systems -Security Hub, Lancaster University.

    In this lecture, Dr. Luke Moffat (Sociology Department, Trustworthy Autonomous Systems – Security Hub, Lancaster University) explores the cultural, material, and political entanglements of artificial intelligence. Drawing on semiotics, philosophy, and indigenous knowledge systems, the talk critiques the “Westernizing Dream” of AI — a vision tied to extractivist practices, colonial logics, and securitization. Dr. Moffat invites us to reimagine AI not as a neutral tool, but as a system deeply embedded in power structures and planetary consequences — and to consider alternative ways of being, knowing, and designing.

    This lecture is part of the Design Brief Award and Companion Program of Public Lectures and Creative Workshops, hosted by isITethical in collaboration with the Design School at London College of Communication, UAL, exploring the role of arts and design in AI ethics and responsible innovation.

  • AI Ethics Through Design

    AI Ethics Through Design

    Dr Malé Luján Escalante – MA Service Design UAL: London College of Communication.

    Ethics through Design (EtD) uses co-design methods to create, facilitate and nurture anticipatory capabilities for research and innovation, responsive to both society and environment. In practice, EtD problematizes both ethics and design. This lecture draws upon ethics of technology to formulate principles of co-design facilitation. EtD understands ethics, beyond regulation and administrative ticking-box exercises, as contextual, creative, and participatory ongoing processes.

    EtD has been developed at IsITethical? Exchange originally within Disaster and Risk Management (DRM) and Emergency Response domains, over 7 years of working in partnership with emergency response services, policymakers, academics across disciplines, standardisation organisations, and key IT developer companies and its framework is now being adopted and applied in other sectors including AI for education and AI Responsible Research Innovation. In the lecture, we share the framework we have used to design and facilitate ethical co-design workshops, tools and interventions, posited as response-able pedagogy.

  • Consumer protection in IT as well as the role of dark patterns in emerging technology

    Consumer protection in IT as well as the role of dark patterns in emerging technology

    Prof. Alexander Boden and Veronika Krauß, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg.

    This lecture by Prof. Alexander Boden and Veronika Krauß from the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg explores consumer protection in digital technologies, focusing on dark patterns and their growing presence in emerging areas like XR (Extended Reality). Drawing on research in consumer informatics and interface design, the talk considers how manipulative design practices challenge ethics and user agency in increasingly immersive tech environments.

    Presented as part of the Design Brief Award and Companion Program of Public Lectures and Creative Workshops, hosted by isITethical in collaboration with the Design School at London College of Communication, UAL, the series explores the role of arts and design in AI ethics and responsible research and innovation.