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Urgent stories from the intersection of automation and social welfare, told by people around the world fighting for access and resources to care for themselves and loved ones
Welfare systems across the globe have long been set up to punish those who need them to access support. But we’re entering a new era where automation and punitive policy make social provision even worse—systems are increasingly computerized, impersonal, and difficult to navigate.
Offering an intimate look at what it means to rely on public services in an ever more alienating world, Not a Number shares sixteen first-person narratives from around the world, as people struggle for access to basic needs with dignity.
Read about Sara Peavey, a young woman in Albuquerque who spent years battling what she calls the “Department of Decisions” in order to receive mental health care; Lucy, a mother in the UK forced to attend child protective hearings and bond with her toddler over Zoom during the COVID-19 lockdowns; John Otajar, an elder in rural Uganda denied social benefits because administrators assigned him an incorrect birth date; and María Medina in Colombia, who was suddenly removed from the category of “poor” by a change to a classification algorithm, losing access to health care and income support.
Together, these stories call us to build systems grounded in dignity, care, and real human connection—so that no one is reduced to a number or data point.
Andrea Quijada is a mediator, media literacy educator, and media justice advocate. She is the former executive director of the Media Literacy Project and a coauthor of “Girl Tech: Young Women of Color and Digital Media Technology,” in Media Education for a Digital Age. Quijada is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Virginia Eubanks is a professor and an investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Guardian, WIRED.com, and Scientific American. She is the author of the award-winning book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor and the forthcoming memoir A Guide to Open-Water Lifesaving: Lessons on Love, Care, and Survival. When not sleeping in her truck in the Adirondacks, she lives in Troy, New York.
Kim and Kevin Stipes (Indiana, United States)
EDITORS’ NOTE
INTRODUCTION: AUTOMATION AND THE POLITICS OF CARE
by Andrea Quijada and Virginia Eubanks
Voice of Witness EDITORIAL NOTE
Hayden Patterson (Adelaide, Australia)
Fatmah (Nairobi, Kenya)
Dany (Barcelona, Spain)
Elli Aaltonen (Tampere, Finland)
Levinson de Jesus Lloreda Lloreda (Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia)
Carlos (Madrid, Spain)
John Otajar (Kumi District, Uganda)
Tii Jurgen (Helsinki, Finland)
Jocelyn Wighton (Ceduna, Australia)
LeDanté Walker, Sr. (Arkansas, United States)
Shinta Ratri (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
Lucy (Southwest England, UK)
Sara Peavey (New Mexico, United States)
María Medina (Bogotá, Colombia)
PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM SOCIAL INSURANCE AUTOMATION
HOW WE CREATED THIS BOOK
ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGIES
LIBRARY AND RESOURCES
APPENDIX A: TechTonic Justice’s “Tips for Identifying AI Use”
APPENDIX B: Tech Benefit’s Advocacy Hub’s
“Fair Hearing Guide for People Getting Benefits”
NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS