The EDI at the EASST2026 Conference More than Now. Exploring Resilient Futures

Paul Trauttmansdorff, Kim M. Hajek

From 8–11 September 2026, The Ethical Data Initiative participated in the conference “More than Now: Exploring Resilient Futures,” convened by the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) at the AGH University in Kraków, Poland. EDI members Kim Hajek, Paul Trauttmansdorff, and Nathanael Sheehan organised a Making & Doing Session called “Making and Doing Ethics in Education: The Ethical Data Initiative.”

_{The EDI Making & Doing stand.}

During the session, participants were invited to engage with various ongoing EDI projects exploring novel teaching formats for data ethics. In particular, they worked together, using dedicated software, to create a collective map of key data ethics concepts aimed at non-specialist learners. The map brings together widely discussed issues and ideas in data ethics, with co-produced definitions, examples, sources, and marks the relations between concepts. Participants could share ideas individually on paper or work with EDI team members on the software to add nodes and connectors to the interactive cartography.

_{Screenshot: the EDI Data Concepts Cartography}

Alongside a “concept name,” participants could propose a “definition,” “sources” and “links,” or a “quiz question” relating to the concept. They were also encouraged to contribute to the EDI’s data stories strand by suggesting short examples or vignettes to illustrate a concept in concrete terms and examine its implications for ethical and responsible practice. Relation types—such as “type of,” “part of,” “produces,” “counteracts,” or “depends on”—are a feature of the cartography and allow collaborators to connect data ethics concepts, producing a preliminary networked map of data ethics. We were excited to see some participants start to expand the concept map beyond English—an important step in the EDI’s aim of making data ethics learning material widely available.

This installation was indeed one of many EDI activities working to explore novel ways of teaching ethical data work, in both practice and theory. The concept map will be further developed by the EDI and should become a practical and accessible tool for educators, learners, and students, especially those in under-resourced environments. It aims to speak to a broad audience of learners, especially those with no or limited prior expertise or knowledge of data ethics questions, as well as serve as a practical resource for data scientists and practitioners in academia, public services, civic associations, and small/medium enterprises. This is another step in the EDI’s aim of promoting active ethical reflection at every stage of data work.

** The EDI concept cartography project was inspired by the concept map on Epistemic Diversity, developed by colleagues Nathanael Sheehan, Rose Trappes, and Rena Alcalay. See here for further information: https://conceptcartography.github.io/conceptcartography/. Special thanks to Nathanael Sheehan for developing the concept cartography software used in the Making & Doing session.