Accelerating ethics, empathy, and equity in geographic information science

Abstract

Significance There has been a groundswell in the support needed to center ethics, empathy, and equity in scientific thought and practice. Drawing on our experience from GIScience, our goal is to accelerate ethical, empathetic, and equitable scientific practices. Many of the opportunities and challenges we outline are broadly applicable and will stimulate the conversations needed to accelerate transformation of science practice and culture. With an emphasis on practical suggestions for reshaping science, we invite all scientists to join in a fundamentally different approach. This paper is a step toward mobilizing the scientific community toward ethics, empathy, and equity by inviting humility, broader measures of excellence and success, diversity in our networks, and the creation of pathways to inclusive education.

Pillars of Cloud‐Based Earth Observation Science Education

“…Individual ethics refers to the intrapersonal ethical principles that guide how an individual conducts oneself when working with EO data. Individual ethics can also include accountability, transparency, service, charity, integrity, and empathy (Nelson et al., 2022). Though they may not be referred to as being part of individual ethics, these principles are often discussed in the classroom when creating replicable workflows or making publicly accessible data repositories (Shook et al., 2019).…”

“…Social ethics refers to the interpersonal ethical principles that shape research, teaching, and learning with others. Social ethics includes ensuring the human dignity of subjects, working toward social justice, following laws and data limitations, working to contribute to the public good, and aiming to increase inclusivity, diversity, equity, and justice (Chandra & Bhatia, 2020; Monmonier, 2018; Nelson et al., 2022; Owusu et al., 2021). Students and scientists practice social ethics by promoting increased data accessibility for underrepresented communities, actively including Indigenous scientists in research activities or raising awareness of sources and consequences of error, bias, uncertainty, and limitations of EO data, or identifying potential harms of EO data‐driven applications, whether direct or indirect.…”

“…A longstanding conversation in the field of remote sensing and geospatial sciences has been the importance of integrating ethical considerations into courses and professional organizations, given the potentially sensitive information that can be interpreted from aerial and satellite sources (Harris, 2013; Kochupillai, 2021; Nelson et al., 2022; Slonecker et al., 1998; Wetherholt & Rundquist, 2010). The emerging field of Critical Remote Sensing (Bennett et al., 2022) examines who EO data harms and helps, and encourages EO scientists to leverage satellite data to (a) expose injustice; (b) engage local knowledge; and (c) empower marginalized actors.…”

GIScience III: Questions of time

“…Furthermore, to unsettle accepted or normative space-times also requires alternative epistemologies, to specifically attune to the out-of-place and out-of-time, following Leszczynski and Elwood (2022). Nonetheless, an attention to the urgency of GIScience engagements that center questions of equity, empathy, and ethics, argues Trisalyn Nelson et al (2022b), may actually need to be accelerated . However, that some GIScientists prefer their own definitions of place, such that place can be “captured computationally” (Janowicz et al, 2022: n.p.…”

A framework for modern time geography: emphasizing diverse constraints on accessibility

“…Recent social and cultural disruptions have added complexity to space-time processes that govern access (Nelson et al 2022). At the same time, technological advances have created opportunities to enable access by removing the travel need for obtaining goods, services, and necessities (e.g., through eCommerce, Instacart, Telehealth, etc.)…”