Science and Social Justice

Science and Social Justice is a short, accessible textbook aimed at practicing scientists, physicians, technologists, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics and Medicine) or STEMM high school and undergraduate students across fields, and general public readers, such as citizen scientists, who are interested in doing community-based research. It will also be of interest in undergraduate health sciences fields (Global Health, Public Health, Medical Anthropology, Engineering), as well as in the natural sciences, Ethnic Studies and Cultural Studies classrooms.

This short textbook takes readers, step-by-step, through the journey of designing and implementing an intervention or research project that is intended to forward both scientific and social justice ends. By taking concepts, methods and epistemologies of equity and justice from the humanistic social sciences and making them accessible to audiences in STEAM/STEMM, this short textbook can transform how community based projects in the sciences and applied sciences are taught, designed and researched. The book offers critical concepts, examples, tips and friendly warnings for how to develop collaborative, non-hierarchical, and long-term relations, practices and research tools for working with communities. Science and Social Justice is a guide for practicing science for and with the people.

The arc of the book takes the reader through the timeline of a community-based collaboration between STEMM/STEAM practitioners and 'lay' communities. We begin by presenting questions of urgency and orientation that are needed before beginning a collaboration. We then move to examining what it means to do social justice driven community work, to how to build and maintain relations with community partners, and to dealing with the effects of research or interventions and any unintended consequences. The length of the book (approximately 5,000 words) is designed for readability and to offer a range of illustrative examples of community-based scientific research gone both wrong and right.