Are financial systems good or bad?

2 min read · June 9, 2023
New Power Labs

In April, Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto hosted a discussion on Gender Analytics, with an opening session on decolonizing data. The conversation turned to technologies, and whether they perpetuate systems of oppression. 

Artificial Intelligence can allow us to erase human behaviours that were once core to our culture. We can use an app to get groceries, and avoid acknowledging that a human will be tasked with gathering the products we’ve chosen. 

But the ways we benefit from technology are incredible. 

Technologies can be designed thoughtfully to minimize harm and focus on intended outcomes. One panellist pointed to the example of an eel trap, which Indigenous communities in Australia designed to catch only the largest fish, letting the smaller ones flow through and back into the waters.

The systems in which capital flows are similar. What do we gain by letting go of binary thinking, and embracing the inherent complexity of shifting power in how capital flows? 

What would happen if we let go of the assumption that financial systems are inevitably oppressive, and focused on a nuanced approach to how capital can be better designed to support those currently underfunded? Or, rather than inviting people into existing structures that were designed not to serve specific communities, do we need to rethink and redesign?

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to get weekly Equity Shots in your inbox.