Presentation at Slavery Past, Present & Future conference
27 Jun 2025
Amsterdam
This June, Fernando Secomandi presented his research on design for mutual recognition at the 9th Global Meeting of Slavery Past, Present and Future, at the School of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The international conference gathered scholars from diverse fields to investigate the historical realities of slavery and the contemporary structures through which its legacies continue to shape global society.
Fernando delivered his paper, titled “Recasting the Master–Slave Dialectic: Data Work, AI, and New Forms of Subjugation and Emancipation,” as part of Session 5: Conceptual and Structural Systems of Control and Their Reverberations. The paper reinterprets Hegel’s master–slave dialectic, arguing that outsourced data work fueling AI development—especially in the Global South—can reflect coercive conditions comparable to modern forms of servile labor. By bridging philosophical theory with real-world cases in Big Tech approaches to managing data supply chains, Fernando challenged traditional assumptions about emancipation and exposed the hidden human labor behind consumer-facing AI applications.
To access a preprint publication, follow this link: http://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/24rjk_v1
Feel free to contact us for collaborations on design justice-related topics:
Fernando Secomandi (Director of Justice by Design Lab)
