Towards An Intersectional Praxis In Design

This research engages with how design and designers might engage with Intersectionality and why this practice is integral to the field. It offers critique, criticality, and proposed models to the field of design. Through the use of a feminist standpoint autoethenographic method as a strategy this research aims to meet the objective of identifying frustrations within studying in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, and working as a designer in order to address gaps in design pedagogy and practice, while speaking from an underrepresented experience within the design field. Research is presented through academic writing, flow of consciousness essays, zine making, communication design, and speculative desig

Gender, Diversity and the European Public Sphere

This paper is an exercise in asking new questions from old theories. New questions that lead to new theoretical considerations, and to new ideas for how to design studies and analyze data. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow reputedly said ‘When all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail’. Building on this metaphor, this paper is an attempt at redesigning the tools we use, to see if we might hit on some other ‘truths’ than the ones we used to hit before. In this case, the suggestion is not to discard our old tools or theories altogether, but simply to take a critical look at them, to assess what they are good for, and then adjust them to meet our present needs. As this paper is intended to contribute to the Eurosphere1 research project, ‘present needs’ are here defined as the need to research citizen participation in the European public sphere from a diversity perspective. So why ask about gender and diversity in connection with analyses of the public sphere?

Factoring the Matrix of Domination: A Critical Review and Reimagination of Intersectionality in AI Fairness

Intersectionality is a critical framework that, through inquiry and praxis, allows us to examine how social inequalities persist through domains of structure and discipline. Given AI fairness' raison d'etre of "fairness", we argue that adopting intersectionality as an analytical framework is pivotal to effectively operationalizing fairness. Through a critical review of how intersectionality is discussed in 30 papers from the AI fairness literature, we deductively and inductively: 1) map how intersectionality tenets operate within the AI fairness paradigm and 2) uncover gaps between the conceptualization and operationalization of intersectionality. We find that researchers overwhelmingly reduce intersectionality to optimizing for fairness metrics over demographic subgroups. They also fail to discuss their social context and when mentioning power, they mostly situate it only within the AI pipeline. We: 3) outline and assess the implications of these gaps for critical inquiry and praxis, and 4) provide actionable recommendations for AI fairness researchers to engage with intersectionality in their work by grounding it in AI epistemology.Comment: To appear at AIES 202

Power Imbalances in Society and AI: On the Need to Expand the Feminist Approach

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence have brought novel opportunities for businesses, societies, and individuals alike, yet they also raise complex questions on inequitable power distribution. We see contemporary AI systems, that reinforce power imbalances and disadvantage marginalized, underrepresented, and underprivileged people. Current approaches to advancing AI, such as Ethical, Fair, or Trustworthy AI, have not included the effects of power in their considerations. As feminism has a long history of doing so, we introduce an intersectional and inclusive feminist approach to shape AI in a more equitable way. We approach this by building on recent Information Systems and interdisciplinary research as well as on evidence from expert interviews in focus groups, which we conducted in 2022 and 2023. Our study reveals that utilizing the feminist approach could be effective firstly, to shape AI systems and secondly, to change prevailing power structures in societal systems to become more equitable

Exploring Empathy and Intersectionality in Gaming: a Case Study of Sweetxheart (Small, 2019)

This study examines the ability of the game SweetXHeart – a genre-defying slice-of-life creation by Catt Small (2019) – to promote empathy and consciousness of microaggressions, specifically among participants whose characteristics differ from the game's main character – a white male-dominated sample. The study included 39 undergraduate students from a Bachelor’s Degree in videogames, offering a distinct chance to examine the reactions of this specific demographic to feminist and intersectional ideas in gaming.  After playing the game, participants were surveyed, and a mixed-methods approach, including quantitative and content analysis, was applied to their answers. The obtained results emphasize how players gain empathy by adopting the game character’s perspective and experiencing her life, and fostering connections. However, the game’s effectiveness in raising awareness depends on the participants’ understanding of intersectionality and the challenges faced by people in positions of privilege.&nbsp

How Does the European Union Talk about Migrant Women and Religion? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Agenda on Migration of the European Union and the Case Study of Nigerian Women

Women with different identity and migration origins represent one of the most significant groups in the migration flows of the Mediterranean in recent years and the intersection of their religious identity and gender has been often neglected in migration policies. The paper applies the method of Critical Frame Analysis (CFA) to analyze the ways in which European policy documents address the intersection between gender and religious diversity. Through the CFA, the article examines the European Agenda on Migration and the priorities identified in the text. The analysis of the document is based on recent case studies of trafficked Nigerian women, which provide examples of the dangerous invisibility of ethnic and religious women in the priorities highlighted in the policy document of the European Commission. The CFA results show that the European Agenda on Migration, in responding to the increased number of arriving migrants from Africa and in designing a new approach towards mixed migration flows, lacks any reference to the gender perspective of migration and gender mainstreaming is missing from the text. The neutrality of the document and the securitization frame applied does not take into perspective the importance of recognizing a gender and intersectional dimension of migration flows, which impacts primarily women coming from African countries beholding strong religious beliefs

Weathering the Storm: Resourcing Girls and Young Activists Through a Pandemic

'Weathering the Storm' lifts up the hopes, dreams and realities of young activists organising against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on lessons from a feminist fund set up to resource their resistance through the crisis, this report  brings together a diversity of voices from across the globe and from funder and activist communities. Rooted in community conversations, creative expressions and political analysis, these collective contributions show beyond doubt that it is not only possible to fund girls, trans and young women activists now, but that to do so is essential for our collective liberation