The Injustice of Fairness - by Jenny L Davis & Apryl Williams (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A substantial and growing field, algorithmic ethics aims to mitigate harms and realize social good. The fairness paradigm dominates this field across AI, machine learning, and other data-driven domains. But so far, efforts toward fairness have been unsuccessful, yielding algorithmic harms that propagate and persist. Jenny L. Davis and Apryl A. Williams explain why algorithmic fairness perpetually fails and shift the foundation of algorithmic ethics to displace fairness in favor of an "algorithmic reparation" centered around repair and redress.

The stakes are high because algorithms are everywhere--from law to love, health care to housing, education to media, and beyond. More than just lines of code or mathematical operations, algorithms carry history, configure the present, and actively shape the future. Set against a backdrop of societal instability and technological transformation, The Injustice of Fairness offers a careful critique, an original framework, and a blueprint for social change with algorithms as entry points and levers.

About the Author

Jenny L. Davis is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair and Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University and Honorary Professor of Sociology at the Australian National University. Blending sociology with tech studies, she explores the ways design shapes society and society shapes design. Her previous book, How Artifacts Afford, decodes how politics and power are embedded in everyday technologies.

Apryl A. Williams is Associate Professor of Digital Studies and Communication at the University of Michigan and Faculty Associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Her previous book, Not My Type, offers a powerful critique of how technology replicates and amplifies real-world social inequities in digital culture.