Karina Ripley

About

Karina researches how tech workers think about "doing good" in the world. What does it mean to build technology "for the public good"? What kind of conditions are necessary for doing this work? What kinds of "doing good" gain salience, and which do not?

Trained as a sociologist, Karina uses qualitative methods -- such as ethnography, interviews, and discourse/content analysis -- to investigate how technologists and engineers think about "doing good." They are currently writing a book for MIT Press that explores what happens when high-status tech workers in Silicon Valley become disillusioned with their jobs. The manuscript follows a group of engineers and computer scientists who volunteer in their spare time to build technologies for municipal governments as they try to simultaneously design technologies that increase civic participation while also working through their disappointment with the tech industry. Many workers find themselves in a bind: they want to feel passionate about their jobs in Silicon Valley, but the industry continuously disappoints them; they want to build things that will help people, but they are pressured to make their employer as much money as possible. Tech workers' frustration with their situation leads them to get involved in civic technology initiatives as a way to salve their discontentment. But this has consequences for the kinds of technologies that these initiatives create: often, they end up building products nobody uses, rather than helping the communities the volunteers wanted to assist in the first place. In all, the book tells a complicated story about passionate labor and the limits of civic tech projects.

Karina grew up in Silicon Valley as the child of a tech contractor. Their experiences living in the underbelly of Silicon Valley, witnessing the emotional and psychological tolls passionate work can exact of employees, have deeply influenced their research and teaching interests. They are also an organizer with the LABOR TECH RESEARCH NETWORK, a 501(c)3 nonprofit network of over 750 members from over 55 countries concerned with issues relating to labor and technology. The organization brings together academics, researchers, practitioners, journalists, and labor organizers to tackle labor and technology issues from an anti-racist, feminist, and transnational perspective.

Education

San Jose State University (San Jose, CA)

San Diego State University (San Diego, CA)

University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)