A Fine Balance: Understanding Anti-Technosolutionist Strategies of Environmental Justice Advocates

Environmental justice (EJ) is a grassroots-led praxis with a deep history of organizing in the United States and beyond. EJ addresses the unequal distribution of harms and benefits at the intersection of industrial activity and systems of oppression and uses a variety of engagement strategies, including interactive computing, to engage stakeholders in action and decision-making. Understanding these practices, especially as they pertain to prioritizing technology use and nonuse, can inform both future EJ efforts and the work of those in computing who aspire to use their tools and knowledge to advance environmental sustainability, social justice, and well-being. Drawing on interviews with EJ advocates in North America and observant participation in local EJ organizing, our analysis informs an anti-technosolutionist EJ perspective that investigates how practitioners navigate the tensions of using engagement strategies to further EJ priorities, practices, and visions. Four themes are introduced: assembling a constellation of communities and publics, representing social and environmental information, practicing nonuse of digital technology solutions, and aspiring toward new forms of action. Strategies and tactics associated with these themes are described, and implications for design and community engagement are discussed.