Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework: A Formative Framework to Promote Societal Considerations in Information Technology Contexts

TL;DR

This paper introduces the Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework, aiming to promote societal considerations and ethical reflection in technology development and use, especially within industry contexts.

Contribution

It presents a formative framework that emphasizes social context, power dynamics, and cultural values in technology creation to foster responsible and inclusive practices.

Findings

Framework encourages critical reflection on social impacts

Promotes socially-grounded practices in industry settings

Bridges responsibility-principles gap in technology development

Abstract

Technology development practices in industry are often primarily focused on business results, which risks creating unbalanced power relations between corporate interests and the needs or concerns of people who are affected by technology implementation and use. These practices, and their associated cultural norms, may result in uses of technology that have direct, indirect, short-term, and even long-term negative effects on groups of people and/or the environment. This paper contributes a formative framework -- the Responsible and Inclusive Technology Framework -- that orients critical reflection around the social contexts of technology creation and use; the power dynamics between self, business, and societal stakeholders; the impacts of technology on various communities across past, present, and future dimensions; and the practical decisions that imbue technological artifacts with cultural values. We expect that the implementation of the Responsible and Inclusive Technology framework, especially in business-to-business industry settings, will serve as a catalyst for more intentional and socially-grounded practices, thus bridging the responsibility and principles-to-practice gap.