skip to main content
10.1145/3411763.3457779acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
invited-talk

SIGCHI Social Impact Award: Asking Better Questions

Published: 08 May 2021 Publication History

Abstract

I remember when I started my DPhil studies joking with friends that my research was improving the sum total of human happiness – by one. I was enjoying the work. It was as a post-doc, however, that I began to see how knowledge, or at the very least the pursuit of knowledge, is not neutral. The things that we choose to study, the problems that we choose to focus on, and the way we frame our questions, lead towards different benefits for different interests. If we want to make a better world, then perhaps we should focus on asking better questions.
One question that was a turning point for me was posed by Steve Walker in 2002. In a world where e-commerce and e-government already had thriving, well-financed research communities, he convened a workshop asking “Can there be a Social Movement Informatics?” The topics ranged from designing with voluntary organizations and trade-unions, to investigating hate speech in Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms. Together with colleagues, we ran projects around “Design for Civil Society”, and “Technology and Social Action”, exploring how we as technologists, designers and researchers can connect and collaborate more effectively with groups promoting social change.
Following on from that work, I won an opportunity to explore how participatory approaches in international social and economic development relate to understandings of participatory design in HCI. Working with the Sironj Crop Producers Company Ltd (a co-operative of small and marginal farmers in Madhya Pradesh, India) and Safal Solutions (a small software house focused on rural development, based in Telengana, India), this was my first attempt to apply participatory design methods in a context with very limited infrastructure and resources. How can we facilitate meaningful communications about priorities and possibilities across wide social, cultural, geographical, linguistic, experiential and economic divides? How does the way we arrange, organize and conduct projects aiming to advance ‘development’ affect the outputs, the outcomes and the impacts that are achieved? How can agency, creativity and control be shared in ways that move systems towards a more just world?
I don't know all the answers to those questions, but I have learned that the inequalities of this world are far greater than I had originally imagined. I started with high hopes that expertise in participatory design, together with a commitment to participatory development would deliver radical results. I discovered that true participation and reciprocity is tougher than I thought. We cannot communicate effectively across such huge social divides without questioning, acknowledging and responding to our own positionality in the wider context. For example, we should ask how our own actions are contributing to harming others, such as the millions who will become, or are already, climate refugees? A few short-term “bungee research” visits will not lead us to real understanding. When key decision making remains in the usual centers of power, that simply reinforces the neo-colonial arrangements that underpin the marginalization that we say we want to change.
To create a future for humanity as part of life on this planet, we must see changes in behavior close to centers of power – and that includes ourselves. We are already enmeshed in a system of unjust socio-economic relationships. “The problem” is not something that is “out there”, it is also “in here” and all around us. Are we asking the questions that really matter?

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences
CHI EA '21: Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
May 2021
2965 pages
ISBN:9781450380959
DOI:10.1145/3411763
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 08 May 2021

Check for updates

Author Tags

  1. HCI4D
  2. ICTD
  3. ICTDEthics

Qualifiers

  • Invited-talk
  • Research
  • Refereed limited

Conference

CHI '21
Sponsor:

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

Upcoming Conference

CHI 2025
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 26 - May 1, 2025
Yokohama , Japan

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • 0
    Total Citations
  • 111
    Total Downloads
  • Downloads (Last 12 months)13
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 20 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

View Options

Login options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

HTML Format

View this article in HTML Format.

HTML Format

Figures

Tables

Media

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media