Integrating tablet computers into daily life:an investigation of changing practices and interconnections

Questions about how objects and technologies are appropriated and ‘used’ inform studies of uptake and ‘domestication’. Such studies generally focus on how new devices become normal, how they stabilise and how they reach ‘closure’. By contrast, social theories of practice suggest that daily life, and the practices which constitute it, are inherently dynamic. This thesis attends to this tension. Tablet computers have been spectacularly successful (58% of households now own one (Ofcom, 2018)), despite providing many of the same services as those already available on laptops and smartphones. In working with this example the thesis asks what the tablet is, what it is ‘for’ and how this changes. In tackling these questions, the thesis develops an ‘integrative’ approach that reconceptualises established concepts of ‘use’. Empirical chapters based on semi-structured interviews with people who have tablet computers explore different forms of integrating: showing how tablets become part of specific and multiple practices, how they are positioned with respect to other related objects, and how they reconfigure the very practices of which they become a part. The thesis therefore, examines the tablet as a device through which different practices are linked and integrated; treating them as ‘extended objects’ defined by relations that stretch far beyond the physical qualities of the tablet itself. This analysis argues for reconceptualising concepts of ‘use’ to better account for these multiple relations, their ongoing transformation, and the consequent de-centering of ‘the user’

The future of techno-disruption in gig economy workforces: challenging the dialogue with fictional abstracts

In this article we explore near-future of the pervasive computing, AI, and HCI in the context of the disruptive potential of technologies on workers in the on-demand gig economy. Using fictional abstracts, the authors muse on dystopian case studies of: independent contractors, last-mile couriers, teachers, and creative professionals. This article serves as base for critical reflections on: 1) the need for multidisciplinary approaches when tackling broader and far-reaching societal implications of digital technology in the gig economy, and 2) the potential role of fictional abstracts in the design process of future digital technologies

Exploring (un)sustainable growth of digital technologies in the home

HCI and Ubicomp research often centres around the support of humans interacting with digital technology. Despite this obvious focus, there seems to be less work on understanding how these digital technologies can lead to growth in use, dependence, and influence practices in everyday life. In this paper we discuss how digital technologies have been, and continue to be, adopted in domestic practices—and how the growth of interactions with various ecologies of digital technologies can lead to growth in use and energy consumption. We further the discussion within ICT4S and sustainable HCI on how to promote research that encourages sustainability as a core concern—socially, economically, and ecologically—emphasising that defining limits to growth are important when trying to affect change in sustainable directions. We echo calls for more significant sustainability research from HCI, and set out some avenues of design for moving in this direction

‘Telling tales’:Communicating UK energy research through fairy tale characters

Storytelling is gaining traction in the field of energy and social science research. It supports collective agenda setting, embraces complexity, and represents one way to tackle the ‘wicked problems’ of climate change. It is particularly important given the commonly opaque nature of social science outputs, and the urgency in which responses to climate change are now required. Responding to these challenges and recognising the value of storytelling, we present three ‘telling tales’ in this paper. Each takes inspiration from a well-known fairy tale character (i.e., mermaids, vampires, and witches) to translate energy and social science research in the empirical contexts of electricity generation, sustainable travel, and plastic pollution in the UK. We draw on these fairy tale characters as a part of arguing that UK policy reflects a fixation with renewables, excessive caution concerning car ownership and use, and a reductive approach to plastics. In response, we consider some alternative approaches, each aimed at delivering transformational adaptation, premised on demand reduction. We aim, more broadly, to inspire others to tell their own convincing tales to communicate research findings beyond academic circles and to help bring about change

Locking-down instituted practices:Understanding sustainability in the context of ‘domestic’ consumption in the remaking

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world placed communities under ‘lockdown’. Various practices of consumption were uprooted from their instituted settings and re-rooted in homes. This unprecedented reorganisation of normality resulted in increased instances of domestic consumption as practices occurring in offices, gyms and eateries were forced into homes, demanding the acquisition of materials and altering expectations of what homes are for. This article contributes to literature on COVID-19 and practice-based consumption research by complicating optimistic narratives about the potential for this disruption to downsize the consumer economy. Combining qualitative household interviews, with secondary data about wider trends, and historical reflection on changes in the meaning of the ‘home’ in the UK, we reveal how the re-rooting of instituted practices structures material acquisition and spikes desire for more domestic space. Recognising that professional practices and institutions have taken on increasing significance for domestic consumption, with stay-at-home orders blurring boundaries between home, work and leisure, we conclude by arguing that future research and sustainability policy should attend more to the institutional qualities of practices

Demand in my pocket:mobile devices and the data connectivity marshalled in support of everyday practice

This paper empirically explores the role that mobile devices have come to play in everyday practice, and how this links to demand for network connectivity and online services. After a preliminary device-logging period, thirteen participants were interviewed about how they use their iPhones or iPads. Our findings build a picture of how, through use of such devices, a variety of daily practices have come to depend upon a working data connection, which sometimes surges, but is at least always a trickle. This aims to inform the sustainable design of applications, services and infrastructures for smartphones and tablets. By focusing our analysis in this way, we highlight a little-explored challenge for sustainable HCI and discuss ideas for (re)designing around the principle of 'light-weight' data 'needs'

Thinking Outside the Bag:Worker-led Speculation and the Future of Gig Economy Delivery Platforms

Gig economy is presented as disruptive, technologically driven, and forward thinking. Design is explicit in this framing, through use of slick apps to reduce friction and simplify experience for customer and worker. However, this framing is often driven by the platforms, and does not fully recognize the actual experience of work. In this paper we report on a collaborative design process on developing concepts for the future of gig work from a worker-centric perspective. This explicitly does not involve the platforms as stakeholders and uses design fiction as a tool for workers to express fears, joys, and the aspects of their work that are nuanced, reflective and surprising. We reflect on the designs created through this process, the tensions, and opportuni- ties with working with gig working couriers, and issues around power and representa- tion when designing with and for this community

Lessons from one future of work: opportunities to flip the gig economy

Pervasive technologies are already transforming "The Future of Work". Mobile technologies, IoT, and data promise efficient and convenient work `on-demand'. They are convenient too for for platform providers whose clean and efficient interfaces for consumers disrupt marketplaces, offering digitally mediated access to services at a click. These same technologies provide access to work and labour markets whilst undermining promising flexible work and access to sufficient work. The global gig economy is expanding. Increasing numbers of workers see gig economy work as their main form of employment, yet have little voice in the construction of systems on which they depend. We argue that technologists must work with gig workers, policy makers and other stakeholders to address the adverse effects of technologies on gig workers. To better understand relationships between workers and the technologies they use, we describe insights from research carried out with UK cycle couriers. We reflect on technology's role in giving these workers' agency, rights and equity by design

The Sustainability of the Gig Economy Food Delivery System (Deliveroo, UberEATS and Just-Eat):Histories and Futures of Rebound, Lock-in and Path Dependency

Online food delivery has transformed the last-mile of food and grocery delivery, with unnoticed yet often significant impacts upon the transport and logistics network. This new model of food delivery is not just increasing congestion in urban centers though, it is also changing the contours and qualities of those doing delivery – namely through gig economy work. This new system of food consumption and provision is rapidly gaining traction, but assessments around its current and future sustainability tend to hold separate the notions of social, environmental and economic sustainability – with few to date working to understand how these can interact, influence and be in conflict with one another. This paper seeks to work with this broader understanding of sustainability, whilst also foregrounding the perspectives of gig economy couriers who are often marginalized in such assessments of the online food delivery system. We make use of systems thinking and Campbell’s (1996) conflict model of sustainability to do this. In assessing the online food delivery in this way, we seek to not only provide a counternarrative to some of these previous assessments, but to also challenge those proposing the use of gig economy couriers as an environmentally sustainable logistics intervention in other areas of last-mile logistics to consider how this might impact the broader sustainability of their system, now and in the future

Critical Incident Technique and Gig-Economy Work (Deliveroo):Working with and Challenging Assumptions around Algorithms

Decision-making algorithms can be obscure and fast-moving. This is especially the case in the context of the algorithm that mediates the work of Deliveroo riders. Forming a critical part of the food delivery platform, the algorithm’s obscurity and shifting nature is a part of its design. In this paper, we argue that adapting usability techniques like the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) may provide one way to better understand algorithms and platform work. Though there are many methods to understand algorithms like this, asking people about negative or positive interactions with them and what they think provoked them can produce fruitful avenues for HCI research into the impacts of platforms on gig-economy work. We argue that despite the results being an assumption, assumptions from the algorithmically managed are interesting materials to challenge the researchers’ own assumptions about their context, and to, therefore, better scope out contexts and iterate future research