Human computer interaction for international development: past present and future

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in research into the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the context of developing regions, particularly into how such ICTs might be appropriately designed to meet the unique user and infrastructural requirements that we encounter in these cross-cultural environments. This emerging field, known to some as HCI4D, is the product of a diverse set of origins. As such, it can often be difficult to navigate prior work, and/or to piece together a broad picture of what the field looks like as a whole. In this paper, we aim to contextualize HCI4D—to give it some historical background, to review its existing literature spanning a number of research traditions, to discuss some of its key issues arising from the work done so far, and to suggest some major research objectives for the future

Geopolitical issues in human computer interaction

This workshop will explore and discuss geopolitical issues in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as a field of knowledge and practice. These issues are mainly seen at two levels: (1) on discourses surrounding motivations and value of HCI as a sociotechnical field, and (2) on discourses surrounding concepts of HCI diffusion, maturity and diversity as articulated by global and local knowledge networks. Since the beginning of HCI, discussions of democracy have been around. It may even be fair to say that the key notion of usability aims to support the citizens of a democratic society. Obviously, exactly how HCI should do this remains open for discussion. HCI has several roots deep in military needs from the world wars of the 20th century. It was also born out of the sociotechnical traditions with its emancipatory ambitions, aiming at creating conditions for supporting human agency that facilitates the realization of people’s needs and potential. There’s an inherent contradiction between these traditions. Thus, we’re interested in exploring the following question: how to reconcile such diverse discourses as military power and emancipatory ambitions in a geopolitical analysis of HCI research and associated discourses? Moreover, the diffusion of HCI as field of knowledge and practice is dominated by political and post-colonial discourses that pervade local and global knowledge networks shaping what is considered useful and relevant research and practice. In this workshop we understand these issues as geopolitical in nature and aim to trace the cultural and sociotechnical dynamics that construct the field of HCI

The Espoused Theories of IS: A Study of General Editorial Statements.

In the IS field there has been an ongoing tradition to study the publication output of the community in order to evaluate the current and potential situation of IS research. In this work, we follow a different strategy and study what IS research claims to be. We look at those so-called 'espoused theories of IS' as found in the General Editorials Statements (GES) of IS journals. Based on the AISWorld journal ranking, we collected GES for 30 leading IS journals for the years 1997 and 2007. We applied thematic, lexicometric, and factor analyses to the datasets of the 1997 and the 2007 GES. Our results show that the representation of IS research in the GES has changed little over the last decade.Espoused Theory; Information Systems (IS); Research; Expectations; General Editorial Statement (GES); IS Journals; Thematic Analysis; Lexicometric Analysis;

Community on the watch: making sense of is research through the lens of espoused theories of is

Community on the Watch: Making Sense of IS Research through the Lens of Espoused Theories of IS In the IS field there has been an ongoing tradition to study the publication output of the community in order to evaluate the current and potential situation of IS research. In this work, we follow a different strategy and study what IS research claims to be. We look at those so-called 'espoused theories of IS' as found in the General Editorials Statements (GES) of IS journals. Based on the AISWorld journal ranking, we collected GES for 30 leading IS journals for the years 1997 and 2007. We applied thematic, lexicometric, and factor analyses to the datasets of the 1997 and the 2007 GES. Our results show that the representation of IS research in the GES has changed little over the last decade.: Espoused Theory, Information Systems (IS), Research, Expectations, General Editorial Statement (GES), IS Journals, Thematic Analysis, Lexicometric Analysis.

Micro-politics, semiotic power and infrastructural inversion: theoretical lenses for geopolitical HCI

An argument is presented for the use of the concepts of Micro-Politics and Semiotic Power by Bijker, and Infrastructural Inversion by Bowker to understand the geopolitical dynamics of career-building, knowledge and value creation in the field of human computer interaction (HCI). This is illustrated with brief references to examples of HCI academic and professional practice and dissemination in local and global contexts. It is shown how local and global micro-politically dominant groups in the HCI field can construct scripts that define quality, impact and relevance. These scripts in turn have a direct effect in career-building and what is considered valid and useful knowledge and practice. The political leverage of these scripts is therefore embedded in artefacts used for different types of transactions in the HCI field. Infrastructural inversion is finally presented as a possible framework to deconstruct and make visible these scripts and the different types of historical and political tensions inscribed in them at disciplinary, local, national, regional and global level

The Possibilities for an Urban Community Action Plan and Collaborative Work Support for Slum Improvement: A Case Study in Jakarta

This study describes community development in the preparation for a community action plan for slum management in DKI Jakarta. The case study chosen for this research is the Akuarium village. The existence of slums is an inseparable part of the development of a city. The slum area contributes to several problems such as population density, building conditions, ventilation, sanitation, garbage, drainage, environmental roads, lighting and building layout. In an effort to overcome these problems, it is important to develop a community development concept that emphasizes the participation of the community through collaborative work between the government and citizens in the development process. The research that has been done has not touched on the substance of the problem faced by the urban poor and how the community plays a role in supporting the program. The purpose of this research is to find out how community-based development patterns can encourage collaborative work of each actor in structuring slum villages in DKI Jakarta. In this study, the method used is qualitative with in-depth interviews and data processing using the Nvivo 12+ application. The results showed that the principles of community development, including integrated development, participation, sustainable development, empowerment, and human rights, greatly influence the collaborative work of various stakeholders in planning an Akuarium development action plan

The Espoused Theories of IS: A Study of General Editorial Statements

In the IS field there has been the ongoing debate about a potential identity crisis, which has led researchers to study the output of the community in order to evaluate where IS research currently is and where it could potentially be. This has resulted in various proposals for IS research ‘in practice’. This research follows a different strategy and studies what IS research is claimed to be (the espoused theories of IS). The section of IS journals’ General Editorials Statements (GES), that is, the informative section offered by most journals where they position themselves with regard to potential authors, already contains the answer. Basing our study on the AISWorld journal ranking, we collected GES for a sample of 30 IS journals for the years 1997 and 2007. We applied thematic, lexicometric, and factor analyses to the datasets of the 1997 and the 2007 GES. The results of the analyses show how the institutionalized discourse about IS research has changed over the last decade

Lessons from Korea to Africa : leaders, politics and developmental states

A recent series of studies have been dealing with the dynamics behind the building of developmental states in Africa. This working paper is a contribution for that debate by looking at the experience of the Korean developmental state and the lessons that Africa can learn from this Asian country’s experience seen as an outstanding model of economic development. Despite poor resource endowment and a large population, a colonial legacy, the devastation following a civil war, persistent political instability, and the lingering military confrontation with her northern neighbour, Korea’s role in the international economic system has rapidly increased in importance since the 1960s. For nearly five decades, Korea has achieved a remarkable economic performance that transformed the country from a typical case of a developing nation trapped in a “vicious circle of underdevelopment”, into one of the largest economies in the late 1990s. Beneath the economic success lied a system of “socialisation of private risk”, a particular mode of organising the market, as the “visible hand” of a strong, bureaucratic and developmental state were able to accelerate the pace of economic growth by identifying strategic industrial sectors, making discretionary allocation of resources to those sectors, and minimising the collective action dilemmas pervasive in most developing countries. But the Korean state, as any other state, is a political realm that encompasses distinct, contending and at times colliding actors. In fact, the Korean developmental state provides us clues about the role that leadership play and what stands at the “heart of a politics of economic growth”. Policy choices and implementation rest on the strategies designed by the rulers to boost their political legitimacy, to strengthen their power, and to guarantee regime survival. Strategies are not only a product of institutional opportunities and constraints, but also of history, context, coalition politics and ideological templates involving the actors at the time of action. This paper will discuss the role played by President Park Chung-Hee (1961-1979) in building a bureaucratic-developmental state and what African countries can learn from these leadership experiences in terms of its own development path