This post is intended to announce the much-anticipated publication (Rowman & Littlefield) next month of Technology and Equality*, edited by Sven Ove Hansson and Colleen Murphy. I am delighted that this important book includes my chapter “Disability and Technology? No, Disability as Technology,” the penultimate version of which you can find on my PhilPeople page here.

I was honoured that Sven and Colleen invited me to contribute to the book. It was a pleasure to work with them; and I hope to do so again in the future. Below, I have copied the publisher’s description for the book and the book’s table of contents.

We live in a world of rapidly growing gaps between rich and poor. In the rich parts of the world, new resource-consuming devices are launched every year. But at the same time, about a fourth of the world’s population does not have access to clean drinking water, and more than half lack safely managed sanitation. What role does technology have in these growing global inequalities? Is technological development the root cause of inequality? Or is the unequal distribution of technology just a mirror of social inequities that have other causes? And can new technologies be instrumental in making the world less unfair?

In Technology and Equality, these issues are addressed from a wide range of perspectives by scholars in disciplines such as history, sociology, gender studies, anthropology, economics, law, ethics, and philosophy. Case studies highlight technology-related inequalities for instance in climate mitigation, public transport, access to water, waste management, sanitation, air pollution, healthcare, digital communication, and law enforcement. The more theoretical chapters provide tools and concepts that are helpful for analyzing and understanding the relationships between technology and inequality in other applications and in more general perspectives.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Technology and Equality: An Introduction, Sven Ove Hansson

2. Law, Public Policy, and Equality, Colleen Murphy

3. Who Decides on Technology Development?, Armin Grunwald

4. Technology and Gender Equality, Lena Wånggren

5. Disability and Technology? No, Disability As Technology., Shelley Lynn Tremain

6. Work, Technology, and Equality, Sven Ove Hansson

7. Artificial Intelligence, Equality, and the Future of Work, Sven Nyholm and Markus Rüther

8. Information Technologies and Human Rights, Giovanni Sartor

9. Agriculture, Paul B. Thompson

10. Water and Inequality, Neelke Doorn

11. Is Breathing Clean Air a Matter of Equality?, Ebba Malmqvist

12. Human reproduction, Camisha Russell

13. Technology and Inequality in the Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicole Hassoun and Anders Herlitz

About the Authors

Index

*For other information about Technology and Equality, including pricing and details about pre-ordering, please visit the book’s webpage here.