Programming for cognitive justice: Towards an ethical framework for democratic code

This paper contrasts two approaches to knowledge sharing for socio-economic development to examine how assumptions about knowledge are reflected in computer-based information systems. The paper argues that socio-technical systems for global knowledge sharing posses a bias resulting from choices about technology and from assumptions about knowledge, and that this bias may adversely affect the diversity of knowledge. To overcome this bias, the concept of cognitive justice is proposed and, on this basis, a framework suggested to guide the design of information systems based on a principle of the equal validity of all knowledges. q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.