Theatre of the Tech-Oppressed: Exploring algorithmic injustice through participatory performances

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Original abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in systems that shape everyday decisions, it is critical to engage young people in making sense of these technologies and their sociotechnical implications. This paper explores how participatory, theater-based methods, particularly Theater of the Oppressed, can foster critical dialogues among youth about algorithmic decision-making, bias, and injustice. Drawing on a workshop with 15–17-year-olds, we analyze forum theater performances that surfaced questions about power, merit, data, and justice in AI systems for decision-making. Through reflective thematic analysis of the performances and spectactor interventions, we identify how participants impersonated algorithmic agents, questioned meritocratic ideals, exposed the role of data in enabling bias, and experimented with hierarchical and imaginative strategies for intervention. Our findings demonstrate the potential of embodied, performative approaches to support computational empowerment by making abstract algorithmic systems tangible, emotionally resonant, and ethically contestable. We argue that Theater of the Oppressed offers a valuable methodological addition to participatory design, especially for cultivating youth agency and ethical imagination in the age of AI.

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