Affiliate Positions
- Research Fellow, Center for an Informed Public
- Affiliate Assistant Professor, UW Information School
- Affiliate Instructor, UW Jackson School of International Studies
Specializations
- Digital Divides & Social Justice
- Misinformation & Digital Literacy
- ICT & Development
Research Areas
Biography
Jason Young is a Senior Research Scientist with the Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA), Research Fellow with the Center for an Informed Public (CIP), and Associate Assistant Professor at the iSchool. He is a social scientist whose research focuses on the impact of information & communication technologies (ICTs) on historically marginalized and underserved communities. His projects strongly emphasize community-based, participatory research with applied goals, but are also inspired by and draw from a broad range of critical social theory.
Jason's current research falls within three interrelated research agendas. The first agenda, ICTs & Indigenous Communities, examines how Indigenous communities are using digital technologies to engage in environmental politics related to climate change and environmental politics. This work explores how digital technologies produce new opportunities for Indigenous communities to lead collective forms of environmental politics, while simultaneously reproducing epistemic and colonial hierarchies within those politics. A second agenda, Community Connectivity, explores how community networks can be designed to empower underserved communities. Community networks are sets of telecommunications infrastructure that are designed, implemented, and managed by communities, and they are often used to provide underserved communities with free or low-cost cellular or Internet access. Jason's primary interest is in understanding the long-term socio-cultural impact of these networks, and how digital services and training can be developed to make the networks more empowering. Finally, a third research agenda, Libraries & Community Empowerment, explores the roles that libraries play in supporting community development and empowerment. This research has examined the role that libraries play internationally in supporting sustainable development, and more recently has shifted to asking what role libraries in the US might play in improving information literacy and addressing the spread of problematic information (e.g., mis- and disinformation). Jason is particularly interested in understanding how information literacy can be re-developed with underserved communities to address the emotional and socio-cultural dimensions of misinformation.
These projects occur in a wide range of locations, including Seattle, the Canadian Arctic, the Peruvian Amazon, and dozens of countries across sub-Saharan Africa. This work has been supported by organizations including the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS), Facebook, and more. Jason received his PhD from the UW Department of Geography in 2017.
Education
- Ph D, Geography, University of Washington, 2017
- MA, Geography, University of Washington, 2012
- BA, Geography, Miami University (Ohio), 2009
Publications and Contributions
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalPublic Libraries and Development Across Sub-Saharan Africa: Overcoming a Problem of Perception (2021)
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalAfrican Libraries in Development: Perceptions and Possibilities (2020)International Information & Library Review
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalBenefits of Crowdsourcing for Libraries in the Global South: A Case Study from Africa (2020)IFLA Journal
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalBenefits of Crowdsourcing for Libraries in the Global South: A Case Study from Africa (2020)The IFLA Journal
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalData challenges for public libraries: African perspectives and the social context of knowledge (2020)Information Development
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalDisinformation as the weaponization of cruel optimism: A critical intervention in misinformation studies (2020)
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalEnvironmental colonialism, digital indigeneity, and the politicization of resilience (2020)Environmental Planning E: Nature and Space, Volume 0, Issue 0, Page 1-22
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalThe Role of Libraries in Misinformation Programming: A Research Agenda (2020)Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalVolunteer geographic information in the Global South: barriers to local implementation of mapping projects across Africa (2020)GEOJOURNAL, ISBN/ISSN: 0343-2521
-
Journal Article, Academic Journal
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalRural digital geographies and new landscapes of social resilience (2019)Journal of Rural Studies
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalThe new knowledge politics of digital colonialism (2019)Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
-
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-NewKnowledge Politics (2018)Digital Geographies
-
Book, Reprint in TranslationUkiuqta'qtumi-Hivuniptingun – One Arctic, One Future (2018)One Arctic: The Arctic Council and Circumpolar Governance
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalCanadian Inuit, digital qanuqtuurunnarniq, and emerging geographic imaginations (2017)Geoforum, Volume 86, Page 53-62
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalParticipatory Uses of Geospatial Technologies to Leverage Multiple Knowledge Systems within Development Contexts (2017)World Development, Volume 93, Page 389-401
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalPolar Bear Management in a Digital Arctic: Inuit Perspectives Across the Web (2016)The Canadian Geographer, Volume 60, Issue 4, Page 574-91
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalSubaltern empowerment in the Geoweb: Tensions between publicity and privacy (2014)Antipode, Volume 46, Issue 2, Page 574-91
-
Journal Article, Professional JournalThe Spatial Politics of Affect and Emotion in Participatory GIS (2013)Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Volume 103, Issue 4
-
Journal Article, Academic JournalThe use of participatory mapping in ethnobiological research, biocultural conservation, and community empowerment: a case study from the Peruvian Amazon (2012)Journal of Ethnobiology, Volume 32, Issue 1, Page 6-29
-
Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-NewThe Maijuna Participatory Mapping Project: Mapping the Past and the Present for the Future (2010)Peru: Maijuna
Presentations
-
Community Approaches to Misinformation
(2021)
UW iSchool - Virtual
-
Advancing Library Visibility in Africa
(2019)
3rd African Library & Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA) Conference & 5th African Library Summit - Nairobi
-
Knowledge Politics Across Digital Divides: Environmental Change, Indigeneity, and Technology Use in the Arctic
Development Studies Association 2018 Conference - Manchester, UK