Participatory Design and Critical Media Studies:A Convivial Conversation

Nell'era della società delle piattaforme, i Critical Media Studies si trovano di fronte alla sfida di sviluppare non solo proposte teoriche in grado di affrontare criticamente il potere esercitato sulla società dalle piattaforme digitali di proprietà della GAFAM, ma anche di immaginare una prassi capace di cambiare l'economia politica di questo ecosistema mediatico digitale guidato dalle aziende. Per fare questo, crediamo che il Participatory Design e i Critical Media Studies debbano dialogare quando si tratta di quadri teorici e pratiche di intervento. In questo articolo proponiamo di iniziare questo dialogo partendo dal lavoro di Ivan Illich, in particolare dal suo libro Tools for Conviviality. Riteniamo che per immaginare un possibile processo di progettazione dei media digitali in grado di evitare la creazione di monopoli radicali, sia necessario adottare un approccio di Convivial Participatory Design in cui le questioni relative alla scala, ai bisogni delle persone e alle disuguaglianze di potere siano considerate dai designer in collaborazione con gli utenti.In the age of platform society, Critical Media Studies are faced with the challenge of developing not only theoretical proposals capable of critically addressing the power exerted on society by GAFAM-owned digital platforms, but also of envisioning a praxis capable of changing the political economy of this corporate-driven digital media ecosystem. To do this, we believe that Participatory Design and Critical Media Studies should dialogue when it comes to theoretical frameworks and intervention practices. In this paper we propose to start this dialogue building upon the work of Ivan Illich, especially his book Tools for Conviviality. We find that in order to imagine a possible digital media design process able to avoid the creation of radical monopolies, it is necessary to adopt a Convivial Participatory Design approach where issues related to scale, people needs and power inequalities are considered by designers in collaboration with the users

Guiding Principles for Participatory Design-inspired Natural Language Processing

We introduce 9 guiding principles 1 to integrate Participatory Design (PD) methods in the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems. The adoption of PD methods by NLP will help to alleviate issues concerning the development of more democratic, fairer, less-biased technologies to process natural language data. This short paper is the outcome of an ongoing dialogue between designers and NLP experts and adopts a non-standard format following previous work by Traum (2000); Bender (2013); Abzianidze and Bos (2019). Every section is a guiding principle. While principles 1-3 illustrate assumptions and methods that inform community-based PD practices , we used two fictional design scenarios (Encinas and Blythe, 2018), which build on top of situations familiar to the authors, to elicit the identification of the other 6. Principles 4-6 describes the impact of PD methods on the design of NLP systems, targeting two critical aspects: data collection & annotation , and the deployment & evaluation. Finally, principles 7-9 guide a new reflexivity of the NLP research with respect to its context, actors and participants, and aims. We hope this guide will offer inspiration and a road-map to develop a new generation of PD-inspired NLP

Co-designing collaborative care work through ethnography

This paper focuses on instances of ethnographically-informed design ofcollaborative systems as they emerge from two European projects that aim to developsociotechnical infrastructures based on more just collaborative practices. We outline anumber of issues emerged related to the role of language, the relationship betweendigital and physical public engagement, and commonality, and their impact on designprocesses. Our contribution aims to uncover how ethnographically-informed design cansupport caring-based practices of social collaboration in different contexts

Shaping social innovation in local communities: The contribution of intermediaries

Participatory social innovation projects often involve the coming together of design researchers, community development groups, and community members to develop (often technological) solutions to social problems or challenges. "Intermediaries" are specific individuals and organisations who contribute to these projects by translating intentions, values and experiences between design researchers and communities. Previous research has not yet critically examined the role of intermediaries in such projects. This paper does so in a project carried out in rural areas of Europe, which sought to test and develop a technology to support the creation of FM community radio stations in isolated areas. We present the project as a biography of infrastructures to provide an account of intermediaries' interactions during the project's unfolding. We find that how intermediaries shape the social base and ends of the project, and the interpretation of the technology involved, is influenced by their position, goals, and relationships in the process

Co-designing convivial tools to support participation in community radio

Connectivity made possible by the diffusion of digital technologies has offered new possibilities for the public to interact with media, including radio. However, interactions are often framed by globally managed platforms, owned by companies with values based on maximizing profit, rather than prioritising Illich’s forms of conviviality. In this article, we draw on experiences from the Grassroot Wavelengths project that introduces an innovative peer-to-peer platform to support the creation and management of community radio stations. We offer insight into the practices of participation in community media, where the users influence decisions concerning the technology, the content, the actors and the organization policy of the radio station, through a participatory design approach. These collaborations between researchers and users, together with a focus on the development of relational assets in local contexts, are fundamental in an attempt to design a platform that fosters conviviality and offers an alternative way to consider participation in community media

Evaluating assumptions of scales for subjective assessment of thermal environments – Do laypersons perceive them the way, we researchers believe?

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