Automating Inequality

Archival Summary & Scope

From denied healthcare to unjust family separations, digital systems are increasingly dictating the lives of America's poor. In *Automating Inequality*, Virginia Eubanks rigorously investigates how data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models systematically harm working-class communities. Through heartbreaking and eye-opening stories, she reveals how automated decision-making in areas like welfare, housing, and child services can strip individuals of vital resources, privacy, and dignity. Eubanks argues that these systems perpetuate a new form of "scientific charity," hiding systemic poverty from public view and creating ethical distance for inhumane choices, thereby weakening democracy and betraying national values. Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award and the McGannon Center Book Prize, and hailed as "the single most important book about technology you will read this year" (Astra Taylor), this timely and vital investigation is a must-read.