Creating Friction:
Infrastructuring Civic Engagement in Everyday Life
Matthias Korn
&
Amy Voida
Indiana University, IUPUI Indiana University, IUPUI
University of Colorado, Boulder
@matsch_o0 Thanks, I’m Matthias Korn. With this research, we address the question of how to enliven and provoke civic engagement (CE) in everyday life. We analyze
previous efforts to designing for CE along two dimensions: the everyday-ness of the engagement fostered and the underlying paradigm of political
participation. Centrally, we call designers of civic engagement to create friction—to make people reflect on and question issues of public concern in their
immediate living environment.
!
Civic Engagement in HCI
Session: Publics & Civic Virtues
ta Analysis
cause of the fixed and intensive period of interviews, all
a analysis occurred after data collection. We conducted
data analysis iteratively and inductively using open
ding, memoing and affinity diagramming techniques
g., [5]). In our first round of data analysis, we primarily
d to disentangle the various practices associated with
ferent job descriptions and phases of the application
6.6 Bus Stop – A Typical Urban Space
take) process. In our second round of data analysis,
we
gan to draw out themes related to the goals of the
6.6.1 Study Design
ticipants’ work and the frustrations they experienced
cessing applications submitted through the Location
online
tem. Subsequent rounds of data analysis and reFigureFigure
1. The
portal toViewpoint
Benefits prototype.
CalWIN
2. client
The low-fidelity
gagement with the research literature helped us to shift
how they
describe putting those values into practice2. By
framing from goals to values and to tease apart the
PROTOTYPE DEMONSTRATION
articulating
thesefurther
distinct
and often
logics awe
To gather
feedback
on the conflicting
Viewpoint concept,
ferent and sometimes conflicting logics for enacting
are ablelow-fidelity
to locate
many was
of developed
the social
service workers’
prototype
for demonstration
at a
se values present within the sociotechnical system.
community
brought
numberfail
of to
local
groups
frustrations
at the event
place that
where
thesea logics
align.
DIS in the Wild
areas have been dismantled to force their inhabitants back to the
countryside [34].
their own phones for testing throughout the project, all had
contracts.
Dialup Radio was conceived as a means of overcoming
The user evaluation sessions also demonstrated the difficulties in
crossing social barriers in such a heated political climate. At one
session held in Harare with young professionals, participants were
wary of the NGO staffers and refused to discuss politics in any
way, not commenting even on whether they intended to vote in
upcoming elections. In anther session held with rural teenagers,
participants initially appeared to take on the role of school
children, dutifully providing their inquisitors with answers that
seemed most likely to please. Much to the chagrin of the NGO
staff, it nonetheless became clear that they were less interested in
news and political programming than in music and cultural
information. After this session, a decision was made to adopt a
magazine format for the service that featured music and cultural
information, interspersed with political content.
urban/rural
by Austin,
enabling Harare’s
NGOsUSA
to speak directly
CHI 2012, May
5–10,divides
2012,
Texas,
with the citizenry. Accomplishing this was not without its
difficulties. In addition to the prohibitively high calling costs
described above, access to Zimbabwe’s telephone networks is
also tightly controlled. Most of the mobile phone operators have
direct ties to the government; even the single independent
operator would be unlikely to support a project that was seen as
antagonistic to the Mugabe regime. At the same time, call costs
were prohibitively high for most citizens.
Access to the mobile phone networks was achieved with GSM
modems, which enabled Dialup Radio’s server to communicate
directly with the mobile phone network via prepaid SIM cards.
These were purchased anonymously from black market vendors,
making them very difficult for a government monitor to trace. The
project relied on small, highly mobile hardware that could easily
be concealed or moved as events demanded (Figure 2). Other
solutions were also investigated, including using commercial
voice over IP termination services based in neighboring South
Africa to place and receive calls to Zimbabwe.
4.2 The Producers: Civil Society
Organizations
Dialup Radio was initially conceived as a tool to broadcast
content produced by the partner organization directly to
Zimbabwe’s citizenry. However, Dialup Radio came to be seen
by the project team as an opportunity to foster cross-agency
collaboration and energize Zimbabwe’s activist community.
There were also social barriers between the host organization and
the community for which the service was intended. The NGO was
largely staffed by middle-class women. The two principals were
middle-aged English speakers, and all three of the people working
on the project were Caucasian. This stands in marked contrast to
the bulk of Zimbabwe’s population, who are Black, young,
Shona-speaking and poor.
Supporting civic engagement from within or without
the political mainstream
ARED VALUES/CONFLICTING LOGICS
together to network. This prototype took the form of an
When the project was initiated, Zimbabwe’s opposition
movement was extremely fragmented. Many people who had
actively opposed ZANU-PF during the 2000 and 2002 elections
had since left the country or retreated from politics. According to
project participants, the remaining civil society and human rights
organizations were jaded and fearful. A lack of resources and
initiative hindered cross-organizational collaboration. To be sure,
groups of activists and NGOs continued to share resources and
provide emotional support to each other. For example participants
were recruited from several local civil society organizations for
one of the Dialup Radio user evaluation sessions, which was held
at the home of a prominent supporter of the main opposition party
(Figure 3). Nonetheless, local activist networks tended to be small
and closed. Fear of government retaliation prevented many
activists from working in public, and discouraged them from
recruiting new members or forming new partnerships.
Figure 3. Viewpoint deployed in a local shop.
buttons for situated interaction, noting: “if you’ve got come
and see it to see the question and then text it, why not just
have a button?” Consequently, it seemed that the
inconvenience of needing to send a text message would
discourage the type of simple in-situ interaction that we had
hoped to encourage with the design.
The project team hoped that Dialup Radio could help rebuild
Zimbabwe’s NGO community, by providing opportunities for
Expanding
Access
application
running on a large monitor, hidden behind a
our interviews with social services workers and through
collaboration within the design process and by creating a service
foamcore
(Figureworkers
2). The screen
a printedCalWIN
design
Both the
socialscreen
services
and had
Benefits
Several users also suggested that the prototype was too
that could be utilized by a host of civil society organizations. The
exploration of the Benefits CalWIN system, we found
design brief quickly evolved to include mechanisms for other
themed
around
a barometeraccess,
to measure
the ‘climate’
of
complicated and featured an excessive amount of text.
evidence
a value
for expanding
although
how access
individuals and organizations to become content providers. The
t the same values discussed in the e-government
opinion, with cut-out sections where results on the monitor
driving metaphor of a radio was adopted to convey the idea of a
is operationalized differs. The online system supports From our own observations, it seemed that people were
rature—access, efficiency, and education—were key
shared service in which various actors could maintain their own
were visible. Behind it, the monitor displayed the current
unsure how to approach theFigure
device
or how
to fitinteract
with
2: System
hardware
in a backpack
for easy
“stations.” Allowing multiple organizations to contribute
clients’
‘getting
in
the
door,’
providing
twenty-four
hour
ues in our research context, as well. These values
concealment
and
mobility
question,
current
results
and
voting
instructions,
as
well
as
a
programming to a shared service required the addition of a
it. Most
!
(Voida et al. 2014, Taylor et al. 2012, Schroeter,
Foth, & Satchell 2012, Korn & Bødker 2012, Hirsch
2009) required an explanation of the device and
content management system to the design specification. This was
web
access
for
individuals
to
submit
an
initial
application.
previous question, its results and information about actions
nifest through the ways in which social services workers Figure(49:(Urban(screen(at(the(university(bus(stop,(KGUV(
interaction—although the presence of researchers around
implemented as a website that allowed organizations to upload
These discrepancies had technical and social ramifications that
and manage audio files, and server software that could
taken
as
a
result
of
the
poll.
Each
poll
had
two
options,
Yet,
the
social
services
workers
understand
access
more
the
device
may
have
discouraged
them
from
examining
it
cribe their jobs, in general, and their interactions
with
were highlighted during prototype evaluation and brainstorming
This!case!study!took!place!at!a!university!bus!stop!in!the!centre!of!the!Kelvin!Grove!
dynamically build interactive voice response (IVR) menus when
sessions held with potential Dialup Radio callers. One of the early
which
were
voted for
by
sending a text of
message
to that
a
independently.
broadly;
they
describe
an
understanding
access
users called in to the system.
Urban!Village!(KGUV).!The!screen!was!retrofitted!to!the!existing!bus!stop!as!part!of!a!
ents, in particular. These values are even corroborated by
discoveries was that mobile phone users with contract lines
specified phone number containing a short keyword (for
sideCproject!that!came!out!of!this!PhD!and!that!attracted!AUD!10,000!in!internal!funding!
experience much better quality of service than those who used
doesn’t
stop
once
the
initial
application
has
been
submitted.
concerns
individual
and collective
actions
thatYES
identify
address
issues
public
concern. In HCI, some researchers work within {1} mainstream
guageCE
on the
front page of
the Benefits CalWIN
website,
from!QUT!through!an!Early!Career!Researchers!Grant,!without!which!the!purchase!of!
example,
or NO). and
When this
was received,
the ofPUBLIC
DEPLOYMENT prepaid SIM cards. Most of Zimbabwe’s poor rely on prepaid
cards for their mobile phone service; however, the discovery was
Social services
workers
to accordingly.
support applicants through Based on the feedback
the!52!inch!LCD!screen!would!not!have!been!possible.!Commercial!LCD!TVs!are!around!
ich promises access (“apply”), efficiency (“fast
and
animated results
dialwant
updated
from
initial
trial
made fairly
late inour
the process
because the
NGO’sand
staff, who used
3C4!times!more!expensive!compared!to!their!consumer!counterparts,!but!provide!extra!
the
entire
intake
process
and
are
frustrated
by
the
ways
in
consultation,to
we voting
revised our[22,
first design
for
deployment
to improve
theand
efficiency
services
[6,
73];
to
improve
access
69];
to
seek
feedback from citizens on public planning
y”), politics
and education
(“learn about”
“get brightness!for!the!outdoor!environment!and!more!robustness.!In!addition,!the!enclosure!
moreof e-government
Throughout the event, attendees were invited to use the
which the
online system hampers their efforts.
into the community for a two-month period. During this
to!secure!the!TV!and!provide!protection!from!the!elements!as!well!as!vandalism!starts!
ormation”) [Fig. 1].
device, given an explanation of what it was intended to
issues [24, 42]; or to foster dialog
among
citizens
with
the
state
[5,the41,
65].
Other
researchers work to foster CE outside of the political mainstream,
achieve
andand
asked
for their
opinions
on “access
both
concept
Benefits
CalWIN
provides
an additional
point”
to which
quotes!ranged!from!approx.!AUD!13,000!to!AUD!25,000!for!the!installation!of!the!TV.!It!
were sourced from local councillors and housing
ven that the social services workers and the
eand the prototype. General feedback on the design concept
illustrates!the!high!costs!still!necessary!to!install!such!screens!in!urban!environments.!
apply
for
social
services.
Social
services
workers
recognize
associations. This section describes the final deployed
vernment system appear to share the same set of core
was
positive:
attendees recognised
the importance
of
supporting the work of activists,
protestors,
and
grassroots
movements
[2,
18, 35,
device,37,
usage51].
of the device, and feedback gathered from
!162
that anmaking
online
portal
many
of Viewpoint
the barriers
ues, we were initially surprised by the amount
of
their
viewsreduces
heard, and
felt that
couldfor
stakeholders in the community.
individuals
and
families
to
submit
applications.
help to achieve this. One attendee noted that it was an
stration voiced by the informants in this research. A
“interesting
way of resource
getting people
and
Benefits
CalWINandisnovel
another
to involved
allow our
able amount of research in values and design, after all,
Technical Description
becausetoit’sutilize
using atechnology,
it’llaccess
be attractive
toInyoung
population
variety
of
points.
the
The Viewpoint device was a self-contained unit, which
phasizes the identification of shared values as being key
people
as well”.
Both walk
residents
community
Individual technologies of CE are enabled
by
many
different,
interwoven,
complex
socio-technical
infrastructures
[37, 47, 52, 68]: Not only networks,
traditional
method
you must
in ... and
[which]
is and
not
could be mounted
on a wall or flat surface
for security
successful technology adoption (e.g., [19]). However, in
organisations
were readily and
able demographics….
to identify areas, Truly
if not
effective
for all populations
(Figure 3). In response to feedback that the trial device was
amining the frustrations that came up repeatedly in
specific
questions,
where
the device
could
prove useful.
successful
access
means
a forums,
variety
of port
methods
based
on
tooadministrative
complicated, the interface
was simplified
to show only
websites,
mobile
phones,
voting
machines,
and
debate
but
also
various
roles
and positions,
laws and regulations, established
erviews, we discovered significant tensions between how
an individual
(Gloria,
Administrator)
two information windows: a question box with very simple
Feedbackcomfort
on the zone.
prototype
itself
was more critical, and
social services workers understand each of these values
voting instructions and a results dial that showed the current
much of
this criticism
related to the
method
of interaction.
procedures and conventions that support
and
enable
various
methods.
It gives
people
more residents
opportunities
ofcivic
how
toinvolvement
apply,
because
result, total number of votes and the poll’s end date. Rather
d how the system reflects these same values.
Although
most
owned
a mobile
phone,
many
from!around!twice!the!price!of!the!screen!up!to!5!times!the!price!of!the!screen.!The!
time, 1,783 votes were cast in eight different polls, six of
!
!
this paper, we discuss the ways in which the values of
cess, efficiency and education are enacted in the
iotechnical system through two distinct logics—the
ics of the system and the logics of the social services
rkers. By “logics of the system” we refer to how the
rastructure and interface of the system direct lines of
ion and engagement, suggesting how values are
tantiated in the technology1. By “logics of the social
vices workers” we refer to how people in various
sitions within the organization think about values and
These values may have been intentional or unintentional
sequences of the design process.
I thinkolder
a lotresidents
of people
cannot
be really
andmessages
hungry and
were
able tohurting
send text
and
some users needed to be coached to send their votes to the
device. Furthermore, even those who were comfortable
2
We present
ourmessaging
results under
categorical
labels
thatforreflect
with text
felt that
it was more
suitable
remotethe
perspective
of ourand
informants—they
perceive totheir
values and
interaction
that using text messages
communicate
goals to with
be their
own and todevice
be distinct
from thatSeveral
of the system.
a collocated
was unusual.
users
However,
we want tosuggested
be clearthat
that
believe
values
independently
the we
device
couldall
have
votingare
enacted within complex sociotechnical systems. To be more
precise, albeit linguistically unwieldy, “logics of the social
services workers” are their logics as influenced by their use of the
1364
system and through their interactions with clients who also use the
system. The “logics of the system” are the logics (a) that the social
service workers attribute to the system through their experiences
working with clients who have used the system and (b) that we
have been able to verify through an analysis of the features of the
public-facing online portal.
than showing both the current and previous poll at once, a
rotating dial was provided that allowed users to scroll
through all previous polls to see the final results and any
response provided.
Large, physical buttons were added to allow voting without
a mobile phone, which provided instant visual and audio
73
Dual Challenges of Infrastructures for Civic
Engagement
a. provoking people to engage in the first place
!
b. invisible, ready-at-hand character of infrastructure
•
create complacency, stasis, and disempowerment
(Mainwaring, Chang, & Anderson 2004)
Yet, infrastructures of CE are a particularly challenging site for HCI as there are competing forces at play. On one hand, infrastructures of CE are
fundamentally about engaging people; even more so, they may be designed to engage people to enact change. On the other hand, infrastructures are
typically invisible; they remain in the background and are taken for granted by their various users [68]. Mainwaring et al. warn that infrastructures, which
are so conveniently at-hand, can breed complacency and stasis [52].
!
Infrastructures of civic engagement, then, must counter not only the challenges of provoking civic engagement through everyday life; they must also
overcome challenges of complacency and stasis.
!
In this paper, we present an example of an alternative
approach to interrupt and reshape routines to create
choice and reflection. Instead of communicating the
simple plan of taking the bike instead of the car, we externalize – or better materialize – it in form of an interactive artefact: the Keymoment. This bottom-up approach harnesses the power of things to establish and
shape everyday practices [6,14].
things, especially keys, lying on the floor. Holding the
car key in one hand, they pick up the bike key with the
remaining free hand. Through this, they literally "pick
up" their intention to ride the bike more often. With
both keys in hands, Keymoment creates a carefully designed, quite tangible moment of choice (for a detailed
video figure see https://vimeo.com/86994036). This
choice, however, is deliberately created by disturbing a
routine. Interestingly, dropping the key creates a moment of choice after a routine has already been executed (i.e., to take the car key). This is a bit as if turning back time.
Friction
•
•
Tsing (2005): friction produces movement
Hassenzahl et al. (2011, 2015): ‘aesthetics of friction’
Figure 3. The Keymoment with both keys side by side
The Keymoment
The Keymoment is a simple box-shaped key holder
mounted on the wall next to the front door. It holds
and presents the bike and the car key, side by side, but
on separate hooks (see figure 3). The spatial configuration frames the moment of grabbing the keys when
leaving the home as a choice: bike or car? If the bike
key is taken, nothing much happens. From the
Keymoment's point of view, one made the "right"
choice. But in case the car key is taken, Keymoment
makes a suggestion. It chucks out the bike key, which
then drops to the floor (see figure 4). Obviously, one
can just leave it there. But most people do not like
Keymoment
Figure 4. The bike key falls down when taking the car key
Forget Me Not
Keymoment is certainly a slight nuisance in daily life. It
creates friction, which seems necessary for change, but
friction can lead to reactance [3]. That's why the
Keymoment not only consists of an implied behavior, a
choice, and friction – it also deliberately tries to make
the friction more bearable. First of all, the bike key can
always be put back on its hook. Once the choice is
made, even if it was not as hoped for by the Keymoment, it accepts this and holds the bike key until the
next potential choice situation. Second, the space on
Now, in order to address these dual challenges of CE, we propose the construct of friction—friction as a design strategy, so to speak.
-
Anthropologist Anna Tsing [70] maintains that friction produces movement, action, and effect. Friction is not exclusively a source of conflict between
855
arrangements of power; it also keeps those arrangements in motion, moving the negotiation of diverging interests forward.
-
Within interaction design, Hassenzahl et al. [30] advocate for designing everyday artifacts following an ‘aesthetics of friction’—as opposed to an
aesthetics of convenience and efficiency. Their work suggests to put little obstacles into people’s paths in order to make them stop, wonder, and reflect.
Take the key holder Keymoment {LEFT} as an example. It drops your bike keys to the floor as you want to pick up the car keys. Or the lamp Forget Me
!
Not {RIGHT} that continuously closes until you touch it again, requiring a deliberate action and intention for it to remain switched on.
We transfer these concepts to the infrastructuring of civic engagement. We believe that frictional design can expose the diverging values embedded in
infrastructure, or values that have been ignored during its design. We also think that frictional design can help to provoke people not only to take up more
active roles in their communities, but also to question conventional norms and values about what it means to be a citizen.
!
Framework for the Infrastructuring of Civic
Engagement
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Now, in order to analyze existing efforts in the infrastructuring of CE, we have developed this framework. In our framework we introduce two cross-cutting
dimensions that bring together strands of scholarship about everyday life and political theory.
!
Everydayness
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Everydayness
Everydayness
From theories of the everyday by social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau, we identify two perspectives on how everyday political
life can be experienced—as confined to {1} ’privileged moments’ or as integrated into everyday life {2} and experienced as ‘product-residue’.
!
These two perspectives form the vertical axis of our framework.
!
Everydayness
Privileged moments
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Everydayness
Everydayness
From theories of the everyday by social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau, we identify two perspectives on how everyday political
life can be experienced—as confined to {1} ’privileged moments’ or as integrated into everyday life {2} and experienced as ‘product-residue’.
!
These two perspectives form the vertical axis of our framework.
!
Everydayness
Product-residue Privileged moments
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Everydayness
Everydayness
From theories of the everyday by social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau, we identify two perspectives on how everyday political
life can be experienced—as confined to {1} ’privileged moments’ or as integrated into everyday life {2} and experienced as ‘product-residue’.
!
These two perspectives form the vertical axis of our framework.
!
Paradigms of Political Participation
Everydayness
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Paradigms of Political Participation
For the horizontal axis, we draw from the political theory of Chantal Mouffe [56]. Based on Mouffe, we distinguish between two contrasting approaches to
democracy and political participation—a {1} consensual and a {2} contestational perspective [2, 17, 31].
!
Paradigms of Political Participation
Paradigms of Political Participation
Everydayness
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Consensus/convenience
For the horizontal axis, we draw from the political theory of Chantal Mouffe [56]. Based on Mouffe, we distinguish between two contrasting approaches to
democracy and political participation—a {1} consensual and a {2} contestational perspective [2, 17, 31].
!
Paradigms of Political Participation
Paradigms of Political Participation
Everydayness
Privileged moments
Product-residue
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
For the horizontal axis, we draw from the political theory of Chantal Mouffe [56]. Based on Mouffe, we distinguish between two contrasting approaches to
democracy and political participation—a {1} consensual and a {2} contestational perspective [2, 17, 31].
!
Framework for the Infrastructuring of Civic
Engagement
Paradigms of Political Participation
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Consensus/convenience
Let me explain these two dimensions in more detail, starting with the vertical…
!
Contestation/critique
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Contestation/critique
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Consensus/convenience
…axis: the two diverging experiences of the everydayness of CE that one may design for.
!
Focus on Everyday Life
•
depoliticization of everyday life
•
Henri Lefebvre (1901 – 1991), French
Marxist philosopher and sociologist
by Verhoeff, Bert / Anefo
“Not only does the citizen become a mere inhabitant,
but the inhabitant is reduced to a user, restricted to
demanding the efficient operation of public
services.” (Lefebvre 1981)
Lefebvre warns that everyday life is increasingly depoliticized in modern society. He writes about a decline of citizenship: “Not only does the citizen
become a mere inhabitant, but the inhabitant is reduced to a user, restricted to demanding the efficient operation of public services.” ([49]: 753–754, vol.
3)
!
He argues that the contact with the state, and with others, has become a superficial and apolitical one. Everyday life is too often seen as irrelevant and
mundane, whereas it is in fact the space in which all life occurs—where we engage and interact with the state, with corporations, and with others around
us—with society.
!
Confinement to “Privileged Moments”
•
special occasions or punctuated feedback cycles
(e.g., elections, public hearings, etc.)
•
with citizens as users, “the state is of interest almost
exclusively to professionals, specialists in ‘political
science.’” (Lefebvre 1981)
•
invitation to participate only when needed and deemed
appropriate
One of Lefebvre’s main concerns is that civic engagement has been confined to “privileged moments” ([49]: 114, vol. 1)—to special occasions or
punctuated feedback cycles on public servants and service provision (elections, public hearings, etc.). ‘Privileged moments’ is the first perspective on
everydayness that we delineate. The state, here, extends the privilege to participate to citizens only when needed and deemed appropriate—e.g., to
improve and refine structures of power with input and feedback provided by users, not citizens.
!
Consequently, CE is often relegated to the periphery of everyday life and to “specialists in ‘political science’” ([49]: 754, vol. 3) who define structures of
power and identify and construct privileged moments.
!
‘Product-Residue’ Perspective
Product:
•
the conjunction and rhythms that render meaning across
fragmented activities
•
“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.”
Residue:
•
the space in between fragmented activities
•
e.g., fleeting moments of transition
Instead, based on Lefebvre, we identify a contrasting perspective on everydayness. Lefebvre argues that “use must be connected up with
citizenship” ([49]: 754, vol. 3)—that the everyday demonstration of concern for public issues and services is as essential a facet of being a citizen as, e.g.,
voting or debate.
!
Everyday life is not merely the stream of activities in which people engage over the course of their days (thinking, dwelling, dressing, cooking, etc.).
Rather, everyday life more holistically understood is the product of these highly specialized and fragmented activities, the conjunction and rhythms that
render meaning across activities, the whole being more than the sum of its parts.
!
And further, everyday life must also be understood as the residue, the space between which all those fragmented activities take place, the fleeting
moments of transition, what is typically left out and not recognized.
!
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Contestation/critique
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Consensus/convenience
So, whereas ‘privileged moments’ {at the top} understands CE to take place in discrete instances to which citizens may be invited, the combined ‘productresidue’ perspective {at the bottom} understands CE to take place throughout and embedded in the everyday social and political life of citizens.
!
Paradigms of Political Participation
Paradigms of Political Participation
Contestation/critique
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Consensus/convenience
Ok. So lets transition to the horizontal dimension of our framework. Here, we distinguish between designing for a consensual and a contestational
paradigm of political participation.
!
Consensus and Convenience
•
deliberative democracy
(Rawls 1971, 1993, Habermas 1996)
•
deliberation of diverging viewpoints
toward a rational compromise
•
aims:
•
Harvard Gazette
•
improve mechanisms of governance
•
increase participation of the citizenry
•
efficiency, accountability, inclusion, equitable access
by Wolfram Huke
e-democracy: translating traditional democratic activities into online
tools for civic participation
The consensus and convenience paradigm {on the left side of the FW} emphasizes rationality and consensus as the basis for democratic decision-making
and action. It subscribes to the idea that a rational compromise can be arrived at through the deliberation of diverging viewpoints. Proponents of this
paradigm include John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas (e.g., [26, 60, 61]; see [55]).
!
Efforts to foster CE following this paradigm typically aim at improving the mechanisms of governance and at increasing participation of the citizenry. The
main concerns of such initiatives center around issues of efficiency, accountability, inclusion, and equitable access to means of ordered expression and
action (such as petitions, balloting, or voting).
!
E-democracy initiatives within this trope often translate traditional democratic activities into online tools for participation (e.g., e-deliberation, e-voting,
etc.; see [2]). They seek to retrofit or replace existing civic activities in order to realize established political ideals and maintain the status quo (see [2]).
!
Contestation and Critique
•
agonistic pluralism (Mouffe 2000, 2013):
•
•
•
democracy as a condition of forever-
ongoing contestation and ‘dissensus’
Mouffe, WMin.ac.uk
a multiplicity of voices forever contentious and never
fully resolved through mere rationality
contestational or adversarial design (Hirsch 2008, DiSalvo
2012)
A contrasting perspective on civic participation understands democracy as a condition of forever-ongoing contestation and ‘dissensus’ [17, 56]. Political
theorist Chantal Mouffe has called this ‘agonistic pluralism’ [56]: a multiplicity of voices inherent in social relations that are forever contentious and will
never be resolved through mere rationality. Agonistic pluralism sees contestation and dissensus as integral, productive, and meaningful aspects of
democratic society.
!
Designers have drawn from Mouffe’s theoretical position in the form of contestational or adversarial design [17, 31]. Contestational design examines[i] how
design can provoke ‘the political’, aiming to challenge beliefs, values, and assumptions. Rather than working to resolve differences through design,
contestational design embraces pluralism and seeks ways to engage critically with contentious issues of public concern. In this view, reflection and critical
thinking are at the core of civic processes, and provocation and contestation are seen as means to attain these values.
!
Approaches to Designing for Civic Engagement
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
Deliberation
Disruption
Situated Participation
Friction
We use this framework to analyze existing socio-technical research within designing for CE. We characterize each of the four quadrants in the design space
and provide examples. These four approaches are: {1}deliberation, {2}situated participation, {3}disruption, and {4}friction.
!
I’ll walk you through these four one by one. In particular, our analysis foregrounds friction as a design space of untapped potential for HCI researchers: to
provoke CE through contestation in everyday life.
!
Approaches to Designing for Civic Engagement
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
Deliberation
Disruption
Situated Participation
Friction
Let me start with our first approach to designing for CE: Deliberation.
!
In terms of Everydayness, this strand of research understands CE as an explicit invitation for participation that is extended from the state to the citizen.
And on the other axis, the focus of design in this quadrant is on fostering discourse among stakeholders with differing viewpoints in order to arrive at
some form of actionable consensus.
!
Enriching Community Networks by Supporting Deliberation
Deliberation
11
stance of the participatory space (as we defined it in section 3), including a
subset of the tools a DCN can have, and emphasizing mainly the community and informational dimensions (cfr. Fig.2) – nevertheless it contains
also tools for fostering deliberation.
•
e-deliberation, e-planning, e-policymaking, e-voting, etc.
4.1 ComunaliMilano2006 Features and Characteristics
Basically ComunaliMilano2006 was designed as a public (virtual) square –
organized in public moderated forums (see Fig.3) – where citizens and
candidates meet each other to debate issues of public interest – surrounded
by areas owned and managed by the candidates, plus a set of common facilities, among which the most relevant are the brainstorming area and the
events agenda.
(De Cindio, De Marco, & Ripamonti 2007, UrbanSim 2009 / Borning et al. 2005, Danaher ELECTronic 1242 by Aaron Gustafson)
Figure 3 - Public Forums list and Discussion visualization in a public forum
E-government and e-democracy research has embraced opportunities offered by emerging ICTs to translate offline activities of civic engagement into
online counterparts [63]. Novel platforms support the deliberation of civic issues within, e.g., urban planning or public policy [7, 23]. Other systems include
platforms for collective decision making, e.g., in the form of e-voting [22, 62]—often as a conclusion to deliberative processes either affirming, rejecting,
or choosing among various alternatives.
!
While this research has been foundational in moving CE online, it still relegates citizenship to the periphery of everyday life, taking place only in privileged
moments. We see less research supporting discourse around citizen-originated issues in this quadrant; those discourses are more commonly initiated
through everyday, product-residue infrastructures of engagement.
!
Approaches to Designing for Civic Engagement
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
Deliberation
Disruption
Situated Participation
Friction
Research that we characterize as Situated Participation emphasizes the in-between, residue aspects of everyday life. Designs in this quadrant target
people’s commuting, going about, and everyday curiosity. They seek to only minimally disrupt people’s daily routines in order to conveniently blend civic
engagement into these routines.
!
Research in this quadrant also targets the holistic product of the fragmented activities of everyday life. It fosters productive dialog, community building,
and sustained relationships among citizens and with the state. It reflects the consensus paradigm of political participation, because it focuses on citizen
input, dialog, and constant feedback cycles.
!
Quote 1: So we think its been really, really, really hard to figure out the rules. […] It hasn’t
been easy […]. But it’s probably because we found ourselves caught in the middle of those
collective bargainings for both his and my profession. [Mother, A3]
Situated Participation
The fundamental idea of our the design concept was to explore how citizens
could help themselves and each other in understanding, planning and applying for
parental leave funding. At the same time we wished to enhance the
communication between the citizens and the municipal caseworkers, when such
communication was needed.
The overall ideas included support to shape and visualize the leave for both
parents using a timeline; a shared object of negotiation between citizens and
caseworkers; aid in evaluating alternative what-if scenarios in terms of time and
money; possibilities of sharing with friends and adding information e.g. from
unions; streamlining of the application process by eliminating unnecessary parts
of forms and redundant information, some of which would come from other
sources such as the employers.
Visualizing the parental leave and the regulations and administrative
procedures surrounding it, as a timeline has several advantages. It can function
both as a planning tool, showing what is to come, and as a historical overview,
showing what has already occurred. As remaining available parental leave is
determined by time already spent, the display of previous history is crucial. The
timeline cannot be used in isolation with the current regulations. There are still
bureaucratic procedures to follow, and actual applications to fill out with a
particular timing (Bohøj & Bouvin, 2009). Keeping track of such timely
procedures is the second dimension of the timeline (see Figure 1).
•
embedding civic engagement into everyday life
•
temporal, social, and spatial embedding
Figure 1 The(Liquid
timeline
Feedback 2009, Borchorst, Bødker, & Zander 2009, Bond et al. 2012, Korn & Bødker 2012, @ChiOnwurah / Vlachokyriakos 2014, Candy Chang 2010,
Korn 2013, Hosio et al. 2012)
The timeline
is divided into three horizontal sections. Per default the middle
section shows a six-week period centered on the current date. At both ends
compact sections show events outside this main section. Users may zoom in or
out respectively to render more details visible or to obtain an overview of a longer
period. Furthermore, citizens can share their timeline with caseworkers.
Scenario 1 (below) illustrates how the timeline is to be used collaboratively.
This strand of research has capitalized on opportunities to embed civic engagement in everyday life through novel networked, mobile, and ubiquitous
technologies. These systems resonate with Mark Weiser’s vision of ubiquitous computing by emphasizing technology that dissolves into the everyday [77],
interleaving civic engagement between and across temporal, social, and spatial contexts of activity.
!
To temporally embed civic engagement into everyday life, research in e-democracy is leveraging {1} online platforms for anytime and ongoing civic
interactions and deliberations [6, 11, 38, 73]. Other research socially embeds civic engagement into people’s {2} online and offline social networks [16, 28,
53, 65]. And mobile and ubiquitous technologies are used to spatially align {3} engagement opportunities with people’s whereabouts in the city and the
issues in their immediate environment [40, 64].
!
Yet, research in this quadrant still frequently considers citizens as users of a city, merely providing input and feedback to the efficient operation of public
services and infrastructures.
!
Approaches to Designing for Civic Engagement
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
Deliberation
Disruption
Situated Participation
Friction
Next, on the contestational side, research fostering disruption provides mechanisms for citizens to reveal, reflect on, and/or call into question the status
quo of values, assumptions, and beliefs held by a community. It does so by focusing on ‘privileged moments’ of dissensus, protest, and civic disobedience.
!
Disruption
•
‘privileged moments’ of dissensus, protest, and civic
disobedience
areas have been dismantled to force their inhabitants back to the
countryside [34].
their own phones for testing throughout the project, all had
contracts.
Dialup Radio was conceived as a means of overcoming
urban/rural divides by enabling Harare’s NGOs to speak directly
with the citizenry. Accomplishing this was not without its
difficulties. In addition to the prohibitively high calling costs
described above, access to Zimbabwe’s telephone networks is
also tightly controlled. Most of the mobile phone operators have
direct ties to the government; even the single independent
operator would be unlikely to support a project that was seen as
antagonistic to the Mugabe regime. At the same time, call costs
were prohibitively high for most citizens.
The user evaluation sessions also demonstrated the difficulties in
crossing social barriers in such a heated political climate. At one
session held in Harare with young professionals, participants were
wary of the NGO staffers and refused to discuss politics in any
way, not commenting even on whether they intended to vote in
upcoming elections. In anther session held with rural teenagers,
participants initially appeared to take on the role of school
children, dutifully providing their inquisitors with answers that
seemed most likely to please. Much to the chagrin of the NGO
staff, it nonetheless became clear that they were less interested in
news and political programming than in music and cultural
information. After this session, a decision was made to adopt a
magazine format for the service that featured music and cultural
information, interspersed with political content.
•
technologies
for demonstrations, occupations
of public
Social Networks During Major Transitions
February 23–27, 2013, San Antonio, TX, USA
(Personal and Political)
squares,
and protest actions at sites of interest
Access to the mobile phone networks was achieved with GSM
modems, which enabled Dialup Radio’s server to communicate
directly with the mobile phone network via prepaid SIM cards.
These were purchased anonymously from black market vendors,
making them very difficult for a government monitor to trace. The
project relied on small, highly mobile hardware that could easily
be concealed or moved as events demanded (Figure 2). Other
solutions were also investigated, including using commercial
voice over IP termination services based in neighboring South
Africa to place and receive calls to Zimbabwe.
There were also social barriers between the host organization and
the community for which the service was intended. The NGO was
largely staffed by middle-class women. The two principals were
middle-aged English speakers, and all three of the people working
on the project were Caucasian. This stands in marked contrast to
the bulk of Zimbabwe’s population, who are Black, young,
Shona-speaking and poor.
4.2 The Producers: Civil Society
Organizations
population in general, and, more specifically by the
interviewees themselves.
Dialup Radio was initially conceived as a tool to broadcast
content produced by the partner organization directly to
Zimbabwe’s citizenry. However, Dialup Radio came to be seen
by the project team as an opportunity to foster cross-agency
collaboration and energize Zimbabwe’s activist community.
In this second phase, interviewees were partly recruited via
the third author’s social network. She had worked before as
a translator for a Tunisian businessman. One of the
businessman’s employees was from Sidi Bouzid and
introduced her to local political activists: (1) a young
member of the moderate Islamist El-Nahda Party who,
however, had not been a member of the party at the time of
the local uprising, (2) a 19-year-old Facebook user, (3) an
internet “activist” to whom the author was introduced
through the Facebook user; and who worked as a producer
and cameraman for a local internet radio hub and web-based
news platform. The notion “activist” implies here that this
person attended some part of the local events in person.
The interview with the young member of the El-Nahda
Party took place in the party’s local premises, the one with
the young Facebook user in the house of the contact
person’s family, while the interview with the internet
activist and radio producer was conducted in a local street
café. The fact that the third author was personally introduced
to her interviewees played a crucial role in terms of trust and
relationship building. Therefore, it was possible to audiotape
all of these interviews. They lasted between one to three
hours, one interview spanned two sessions. The interviews
were partly translated from Arabic into English and
transcribed by the third author.
When the project was initiated, Zimbabwe’s opposition
movement was extremely fragmented. Many people who had
actively opposed ZANU-PF during the 2000 and 2002 elections
had since left the country or retreated from politics. According to
project participants, the remaining civil society and human rights
organizations were jaded and fearful. A lack of resources and
initiative hindered cross-organizational collaboration. To be sure,
groups of activists and NGOs continued to share resources and
provide emotional support to each other. For example participants
were recruited from several local civil society organizations for
one of the Dialup Radio user evaluation sessions, which was held
at the home of a prominent supporter of the main opposition party
(Figure 3). Nonetheless, local activist networks tended to be small
Figure 1: Sidi Bouzid
in front of the governor’s palace
and closed. Fear of government retaliation prevented many
from
working
in public, and self-immolation
discouraged them from
(January 2012): Tentsactivists
at the
site
of Bouazizi’s
recruiting new members or forming new partnerships.
The out
project to
team be
hopeda that
Dialup
Radio could helpLocals
rebuild
Trust building turned
real
challenge.
Zimbabwe’s NGO community, by providing opportunities for
typically assumed that
the within
first
author
a Western
collaboration
the design
processwas
and by creating
a service
that could be utilized by a host of civil society organizations. The
journalist of whom they
seen evolved
manyto during
the lastforyear.
design had
brief quickly
include mechanisms
other
individuals and organizations to become content providers. The
Certain actors distrusted
Western visitors, specifically
driving metaphor of a radio was adopted to convey the idea of a
shared
in which by
various
actors could maintain
their own
journalists. One actor,
a service
translator
profession,
expressed
Figure 2: System hardware fit in a backpack for easy
“stations.” Allowing multiple organizations to contribute
concealment andthis
mobility
attitude towards programming
the second
author
– an
Asiatic
native.
to a shared
service
required
the addition
of a
(Hirsch 2009, Wulf et al. 2013, Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info
2012,
London
2014/15)
content management
system V&A
to the design
specification.
This was
He mentioned that from
his experience,
Western
media
did
implemented
as a website that allowed
organizations
to upload
These discrepancies had technical and social ramifications that
and manage
audio files,
and server
software follows,
that could
not take
informants
seriously.
Their
coverage
were highlighted during prototype evaluation
and local
brainstorming
dynamically build interactive voice response (IVR) menus when
sessions held with potential Dialup Radio callers. One of the early
userspolitical
called in to the agenda,
system.
argued,
a Western
does not seriously
discoveries was that mobile phonehe
users
with contract
lines
experience much better quality of service
than local
those who
used
reflect
voices,
and focuses on facts about Sidi Bouzid
prepaid SIM cards. Most of Zimbabwe’s poor rely on prepaid
cards for their mobile phone service;which
however, the
was a world view.
fitdiscovery
into such
Research in this quadrant has studied the use of technologies during demonstrations, occupations of public squares, and protest actions at sites of interest
made fairly late in the process because the NGO’s staff, who used
Given the delicate political climate at the time of the
uprising’s first anniversary,
we felt it inappropriate to write
73
explicit field notes in front of the governor’s palace. We also
assumed that audio recording would have a negative impact
on the interviewees’ willingness to talk to us about these
politically still sensitive issues. Still, in the course of the
interviews, we wrote down some brief notes inside a travel
guide book and took photos selectively with an iphone.
However, we later found that using an iphone in public
could put us in dangerous situations. In the evening, when
the authors left a youth café, an attempt was made to
forcibly remove the iphone from them. The resulting scuffle
saw the first author falling to the street floor, shouting
loudly for help. Given these circumstances, comprehensive
summaries of the interviews, group discussions, and
observations were only written in the evenings back at the
hotel.
to the local community [2, 35, 71]. Research in HCI frequently focuses on communication and coordination practices, e.g., concerning the dissemination of
As with the first phase of the study, the third author
conducted additional informal
interviews:
her hotel, [33, 35].
protest actions on social media [2, 71], or the coordination work required during decentralized
forms
of inprotest
!
during long bus rides, in a tea house, and when invited to the
interviewees’ families for “iftaar”, the fast-breaking meal
during Ramadan. She conducted a total of 15 informal
interviews in Arabic which lasted between 10 minutes and 1
hour. Necessarily, interactions which involved - for instance
- being invited to her contact person’s and the young
Facebook user’s families entailed an ‘observer as
participant’ role in discussions. Such an approach was both
necessary and desirable since trust issues, as we had
previously argued, were paramount. By trying to become
friends, or at least, to be accepted by members of the
community, she built trust so the target group did not feel
threatened by her presence (Howell 1972). As an example,
the third researcher adopted this ‘observer as participant’
role when joining the internet activist and local radio
producer: in the evenings he and his friends would sit in a
local street café drinking tea and smoking their water pipes.
During some of these sessions the researcher preferred not
to record any interviews but instead to adopt the very
informal stance of attentively following the conversation
around the table. These observations helped her to a better
understanding the social context of the interviewees’ media
use.
Whereas this contestational strand of research began by supporting individual protest activities and moments of civic disobedience, it has increasingly
acknowledged recurring practices, the re-appropriation of technologies, and the need for infrastructural support for continued and ongoing activism.
!
The results emerging from the interviews were extended and
triangulated by findings from informal interviews conducted
during the trip in other parts of Tunisia. The reliability of
this information was also confirmed by an analysis of press
reports and publications, specifically (Bettaieb 2011).
Nevertheless, we were conscious that our empirical results
were ‘opportunistic’ and perhaps lacked a certain
robustness. Therefore, we collected additional empirical
data in a second phase of the study. The third author who
conducted the field research in September 2012 is a
translator of Arabic and lecturer for intercultural
communication. She conducted three semi-structured
interviews based on guidelines emerging from the results of
the first phase. The focus of the interviews was on social
media use during the time of the uprising, by the local
SIDI BOUZID AND ITS UPRISING
The personal background of the interviewees reflected the
economic problems Sidi Bouzid has to face. During the first
1412
Approaches to Designing for Civic Engagement
Product-residue Privileged moments
Everydayness
Paradigms of Political Participation
Consensus/convenience
Contestation/critique
Deliberation
Disruption
Situated Participation
Friction
Finally, research employing friction as a design strategy embodies both an engagement with the product-residue of the everyday and with a philosophy
that politics is fundamentally contestational. This transition shifts the unit of analysis from the activity to the smaller-scale gaps and spaces in between
activities and the larger-scale implications of those activities.
!
Friction
•
overlays for government-issues ID cards to temporarily
black out information (Clement et al. 2012)
!
!
•
alternative and oppositional media, bypassing
government control
(Clement et al. 2012, Independent Media Center 2015)
We find little research that embodies this approach to designing for civic engagement. I have just two examples of frictional designs for you.
!
First, Clement et al. [15] create friction through the adversarial redesign of identity infrastructures that receive everyday use. They designed overlays for
government-issued ID cards that allow citizens to temporarily black out information unnecessarily exposed by default in many situations (e.g., buying
alcohol requires sharing your photo and date of birth but not your name or address). The overlays present small obstacles in a larger infrastructure that
citizens are confronted with on an everyday basis, provoking them to question the means of government identification and reflect on privacy more
generally.
!
Friction
•
overlays for government-issues ID cards to temporarily
black out information (Clement et al. 2012)
!
!
•
alternative and oppositional media, bypassing
government control
(Clement et al. 2012, Independent Media Center 2015)
We find another example of friction in research that has explored alternative and oppositional media [32, 34, 51]. Activists seek to facilitate the exchange
of alternative voices bypassing government control to allow the dissemination of potentially dissenting information. They often build on top of other
stable and pervasive infrastructures (e.g., the web [34] or mobile phone networks [32]), at times in parasitic relationships, to subvert these infrastructures
and put them to new and alternative uses. Here, alternative media use escapes privileged moments by undercutting the power relationship that allows the
state to define what constitutes privilege.
!
Given the dearth of examples of friction applied in designs for civic engagement and the promise suggested by these initial examples, I turn next to
expand on ‘friction’ as a strategy for bringing everyday provocation to the infrastructuring of civic engagement.
!
Four Principles of Creating Friction
1. Designs for friction take a position or a stance.
2. Designs for friction want to cause trouble.
3. Designs for friction are naïve and inferior.
4. Designs for friction are not absolute.
!
adapted from Hassenzahl et al. (2011, 2015)
As a starting point for exploring how to create friction within CE, we adept Hassenzahl et al.’s four principles for designing within an ‘aesthetics of
friction’ [29, 30, 44]. (Hassenzahl was the one with the Keymoment key holder and the Forget Me Not lamp from earlier in the talk):
!
1. First, designs for friction are not neutral. They take a position, an explicit stance toward their users. Designs for friction provoke individuals to identify
!
not as users but as citizens in the most active sense possible.
Four Principles of Creating Friction
1. Designs for friction take a position or a stance.
2. Designs for friction want to cause trouble.
3. Designs for friction are naïve and inferior.
4. Designs for friction are not absolute.
!
adapted from Hassenzahl et al. (2011, 2015)
2.
Second, designs for friction want to cause trouble. They do not want to help you, not make CE more efficient or convenient for you, and not merely
blend activities of CE seamlessly into everyday life. Rather, designs for friction place little obstacles in your way. Designing for friction means making
citizens pause and reflect—reflect on alternative civic values, on the viewpoints of others, and on one’s agency as a citizen .. not user. … By carving
!
out space for reflection in the residue between activities, designs for friction counter the stasis and complacency caused by typical infrastructures.
Four Principles of Creating Friction
1. Designs for friction take a position or a stance.
2. Designs for friction want to cause trouble.
3. Designs for friction are naïve and inferior.
4. Designs for friction are not absolute.
!
adapted from Hassenzahl et al. (2011, 2015)
3.
Third, designs for friction are naïve and inferior to the user. Designs for friction do not take agency away from the citizenry. They do not make use of
‘intelligent’ algorithms to anticipate and represent individuals in civic participation. Rather than staking a claim to values identified a priori by
!
designers, they provoke individuals to articulate and stake a claim to their own values.
Four Principles of Creating Friction
1. Designs for friction take a position or a stance.
2. Designs for friction want to cause trouble.
3. Designs for friction are naïve and inferior.
4. Designs for friction are not absolute.
!
adapted from Hassenzahl et al. (2011, 2015)
4.
And fourth, designs for friction are not absolute. They do not impose change. Designs for friction provide opportunities for citizens, not mandates.
There is always an alternative to acknowledging, responding to, or using infrastructures of CE. Frictional infrastructures do not stop citizens from
!
carrying on as intended. Rather, they serve to make citizens pause, to be disruptive without bringing things to a halt.
Design Strategies for Creating Friction
•
infrastructuring through intervention
(Clement et al. 2012, Irani & Silberman 2013)
•
infrastructuring by creating alternatives
(Hirsch 2009a, 2009b)
•
infrastructuring by making gaps visible
(Chalmers & Galani 2004, Mainwaring, Chang, & Anderson 2004)
•
infrastructuring by using trace data for critique
(Khovanskaya et al. 2013, Weise et al. 2012)
In addition to (and separate from) the four principles, we were also able to synthesize from examples in previous research an initial suite of four design
strategies for creating friction. In this synthesis, we build on examples from within but particularly also outside the domain of CE. We talk more in depth
about these four strategies in the paper.
!
-
The first strategy is to subversively intervene in existing infrastructure one has no control over, such as in the case of the ID-card overlays from Clement
et al.; or in the case of Turkopticon by Irani & Silberman who, in the domain of labor justice and AMT, “graft a new infrastructure onto an existing one”
!
in order to reveal previously invisible relationships and empower a previously disenfranchised stakeholder population.
Design Strategies for Creating Friction
•
infrastructuring through intervention
(Clement et al. 2012, Irani & Silberman 2013)
•
infrastructuring by creating alternatives
(Hirsch 2009a, 2009b)
•
infrastructuring by making gaps visible
(Chalmers & Galani 2004, Mainwaring, Chang, & Anderson 2004)
•
infrastructuring by using trace data for critique
(Khovanskaya et al. 2013, Weise et al. 2012)
-
!
!
Second, to create alternative infrastructures in parallel to existing ones (sometimes piggy-backing on them) in order to facilitate a pluralism of voices
(e.g., alternative media, parallel communication infrastructures).
Design Strategies for Creating Friction
•
infrastructuring through intervention
(Clement et al. 2012, Irani & Silberman 2013)
•
infrastructuring by creating alternatives
(Hirsch 2009a, 2009b)
•
infrastructuring by making gaps visible
(Chalmers & Galani 2004, Mainwaring, Chang, & Anderson 2004)
•
infrastructuring by using trace data for critique
(Khovanskaya et al. 2013, Weise et al. 2012)
-
!
!
Third, to make gaps and seams in infrastructure visible (a la Seamful Design), even foregrounding them, in order to engender awareness, reflection,
and questioning of the values inscribed in infrastructure and the activities they enable or inhibit.
Design Strategies for Creating Friction
•
infrastructuring through intervention
(Clement et al. 2012, Irani & Silberman 2013)
•
infrastructuring by creating alternatives
(Hirsch 2009a, 2009b)
•
infrastructuring by making gaps visible
(Chalmers & Galani 2004, Mainwaring, Chang, & Anderson 2004)
•
infrastructuring by using trace data for critique
(Khovanskaya et al. 2013, Weise et al. 2012)
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!
Or fourth, to visualize trace data of infrastructural use to reveal and critique infrastructure — as Khovanskaya et al. have done in the domain of web
privacy and surveillance provoking critique and reflection on commercial data mining practices.
Together, the four principles and the four design strategies represent a good starting point—elements of a design brief if you will—for future work on
designing for friction in the infrastructuring of civic engagement.
!
Conclusion / Contributions
•
design space for the infrastructuring of civic engagement
•
two dimensions
•
•
four approaches to designing for civic engagement
•
•
everydayness and paradigms of political participation
deliberation, situated participation, disruption, friction
unpacking opportunities to design for friction
Ok. In conclusion, designing for friction foregrounds the significant role of infrastructures when the everyday is emphasized. As existing infrastructures are
slow to change and susceptible to inertia, various strategies have been employed to work through and around them, applying contestation, provocation,
and critique to question the status quo and counter inertia. We position friction to foreground infrastructures through everyday obstacles that counter the
potential of stasis and complacency.
!
In this research, we have introduced theories of the everyday to the emerging bodies of research on contestational design and infrastructures of civic
engagement. Our research contributes a design space distilling and describing four distinct approaches to designing for civic engagement, including
deliberation, situated participation, disruption, and friction. We argue that there is an untapped potential and unpack opportunities to design for friction.
We call you to design for friction—leveraging critique and contestation as means of re-unifying politics and the everyday.
!
Creating Friction:
Infrastructuring Civic Engagement in Everyday Life
Matthias Korn
&
Amy Voida
Indiana University, IUPUI Indiana University, IUPUI
University of Colorado, Boulder
Thanks!
[email protected]
@matsch_o0 [email protected]