Undesigning Culture. A brief reflection on design as ethical practice

This essay furthers the understanding of design as ethical practice.\ud Based on a perspective on the relationship between humans and technology as a\ud material-discursive practice, an argument is developed in which the meaning and\ud matter of a technology is not perceived as the effect of use only. Matter and\ud meaning emerge in each iteration in the design process of a technology. A design\ud strategy is presented in which ethics becomes an integral part of the design\ud process

In/Visible Bodies. On patients and privacy in a networked world

In the networked world, privacy and visibility become entangled in new and unexpected ways. This article uses the concept of networked visibility to explore the entanglement of technology and the visibility of patient bodies. Based\ud on semi-structured interviews with patients active in social media, this paper describes how multiple patient bodies are produced in the negotiations between the need for privacy and the need for social interaction. Information technology is actively involved in these negotiations: patients use technology to make their bodies both visible and invisible. At the same time technology collects data on these patients, which can be used for undesired commercial and surveillance\ud purposes. The notion of visibility by design may infuse design efforts that enable online privacy, supporting patients in the multiple ways they want to be visible and invisible online

Design for the contact zone. Knowledge management software and the structures of indigenous knowledges

This article examines the design of digital indigenous knowledge archives. In a discussion of the distinction between indigenous knowledge and western science, a decentred perspective is developed, in which the relationship between different local knowledges is explored. The particular characteristics of indigenous knowledges raise questions about if and how these knowledges can be managed. The role of technology in managing indigenous knowledges is explored with examples from fieldwork in India and Kenya and from web-based databases and digital archives. The concept of contact zone is introduced to explore the space in which different knowledges meet and are performed, such as indigenous knowledge and the technoscientific knowledge of the database. Design for the contact zone, this article proposes, is an intra-active and adaptive process for in creating databases that are meaningful for indigenous knowers. The meta-design approach is introduced as a methodology, which may provide indigenous knowers tools for self-representation and self-organisation through design

Mobile phone-based healthcare delivery in a Sami area: Reflections on technology and culture\ud

This paper analyses the redesign of psychiatric services for children and\ud adolescents in a Sami area in the county of Finnmark in Norway. The project\ud included the introduction of a new technology in support of a decentralized model\ud for healthcare service delivery. We focus specifically on the role of culture in the\ud development and implementation of a mobile phone application during the pilot\ud phase of the project. In our analysis we draw on information infrastructure theory.\ud We are in particular interested in the concept of generativity and critically assess\ud its role of in the analysis of technology in a culturally diverse context

The Role of Independent Repair in a Circular and Regenerative Economy

The focus on the transition to a circular economy has contributed to a growing research interest in repair. This paper investigates the role of independent repair, which consists of individuals, organisations, or businesses engaged in the repair of products without formal authorisation of the brand owners of these products. Repair—and independent repair in particular—is critical in achieving a paradigm shift that is anchored in regenerative sustainability. Especially in the electrical and electronics equipment sector, independent repair is challenged by difficult or expensive access to spare parts and repair information. This paper focuses on the independent electronics repair sector in Oslo. We implemented twenty-five semi-structured interviews with repairers working in commercial independent repair shops, focusing on challenges and opportunities in independent repair. They repaired a wide variety of products: mobile phones, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, cameras, printers, e-mobility batteries, remote-controlled cars, drones, and white goods. The thematic analysis of the interviews revealed three main findings. The independent repair sector employs different business models and strategies to tackle the challenges related to accessing affordable and quality spare parts. Secondly, independent repair fills the gap between expensive authorised repair, mostly covered by warranty or insurance, and discarding a broken product. Thirdly, independent repair has contributed to a circular spare part economy, both locally and on a global level. In the discussion, we address how repair can be understood as a regenerative practice, as well as how policy and regulation of repair, both on an EU and national level, supports or undermines independent repair.publishedVersio

Repair = care: system stories from Norway and Ghana

Sustainable production and consumption is one of the seventeen Sustai- nable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015). The mobile phone is an important example of unsustainable production and consumption. There are widespread social and environmental impacts in its life cycle (van der Velden & Taylor, 2017) and the production and consumption of mobile pho- nes continues to increase, also in countries with a highly saturated market. In 2017, 1.47 billion mobile phone units were shipped worldwide and that number is expected to reach 1.7 billion units in 2020 (Statista, 2018). Repair is one of the activities that disrupt the unsustainable consumption of mobile phones. Repair extends the lifespan of a product, which slows down unsustainable product life cycles. Through stories of the repair of mobile phones, from Norway and Ghana, we are able draw a global system of mo- bile phone production and consumption, which can offer insight for a more sustainable mobile phone life cycle. The number of places where one can repair shoes, clothes, electronics, etc., after the warranty period has expired, has decreased dramatically in high- income countries such as Norway. Also when one brings a faulty item back during the warranty period, the item is most often not repaired, but replaced. As a result of increased awareness of the impact of unsustainable consumption, several community-based repair initiatives have spring up in high-income countries, such as the Restart Project in the UK (The Restart Project, 2018) and Repair Café in the Netherlands (Repair Café, 2018), both with affiliates around the world. The Restart project focuses on the repair of electronics. Restarters Norway, which is one of their affiliates, organises so-called repair parties for electronics (Restarters Norway, 2018). Repair Cafés offer all kinds of repairs, based on the availability of skills among their volunteers. Electronics, bicycles, and clothes are some of the most popular items. Community repair is based on voluntary participation of repairers, who come together in a local setting, such as a community centre or library, to repair whatever people bring in. The meetings are organised by and for the local community. Community repair is often motivated by sustainable con- sumption or the unavailability or unaffordability of formal repair, but also the culture and joy of repair plays a central role. In low-income countries, repair has always been an important household activity as well as economic activity. Our fieldwork on informal mobile pho- ne repair in Ghana shows that repair is a collective activity; colleagues, ma- ster repairers, and apprentices work together, sharing tools and expertise. Rather than comparing informal repair activities in Norway and Ghana, we propose to tell system stories of mobile phone repair in both countries. Sy- stem stories have the capacity to shift the focus from parts of the system to the whole system (Stroh, 2015). They are part of what Ison calls a systemic inquiry, “a particular means of facilitating movement towards social lear- ning (understood as concerted action by multiple stakeholders in situations of complexity and uncertainty)” (2010, p. 244). We understand repair as a “doings of care” (de la Bellacasa, 2011). Our repair stories focus on the material aspects of the mobile phone. We follow the mo- bile phones and its spare parts to the places where they are repaired and we focus on the repair process itself, by looking at the tools and resources (manuals, spare parts) used for repair. Using system mapping (Stroh, 2015), we can draw global flows of materials as well as the structures that regulate these flows, such as national, EU, and international regulation, and consu- mer practices. System stories and system mapping are important tools in addressing com- plex problems, such as those of addressed by the SDGs. By focusing on re- pair, an activity disrupting the business as usual of unsustainable cycles of production and consumption, we are able to shift the focus towards the system as whole. By mapping global flows of materials, we are able to iden- tify what is “systemically desirable” (P. B. Checkland, 1999; P. Checkland & Winter, 2006) in terms of possible actions that will strengthen repair as an intervention in unsustainable production and consumption. We identify product design for reparability, the free and affordable availability of quali- ty spare parts, and zero value-added taxes on repair and spare parts as desi- rable actions for caring about mobile phones and other things

Disentangling participatory ICT design in socioeconomic development

Participatory design in socioeconomic development is an invariably political activity fraught with both political as well as ethical entanglements. ICT for development (ICTD) - often involved in contexts of great inequality and heteogeneity - places these in especially sharp relief. This paper draws attention to these entanglements as well as what they mean for the role and practice of designer-researchers practicing PD. We then draw upon our experiences in an active PD project to highlight approaches that serve as a partial response to these entanglements. These presents both limitations as well as orientations for our role as designer-researchers in engaging with and organising PD work in ICTD - providing a starting point for answering the question “who participates with whom in what and why?

Colourful Privacy: Designing Visible Privacy Settings with Teenage Hospital Patients

The paper reports from a qualitative study based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews and Participatory Design activities with hospitalised teenagers with chronic health challenges. We studied how teenage patients manage their online privacy, with a focus on the design and use of privacy settings. We found that the majority of participants preferred to visualise privacy settings through the use colours and to personalise access control. They also considered these necessary on more secure patient-centred social media. As proof of concept, we implemented some of the findings in a patient social network setting. We conclude that visualising and personalising privacy settings enable young patients to have more control over the sharing of personal information and may result in a more effective use of privacy settings. In addition, privacy-aware default settings may prevent teens from unintended sharing of personal information

Making Context Specific Card Sets - A Visual Methodology Approach: Capturing User Experiences with Urban Public Transportation

The paper discusses the use of visual methodologies in the sense-making phases of HCI design processes. The discussion is illustrated through development of a card set, a visual tool, to explore context specific issues related to experiences with urban public transportation. The card set was intended for an open exploration of users’ experiences during different phases of a typical commute, from preparing for traveling to arriving at the destination. The paper argues in favor of increased use of visual methodologies in HCI and presents a framework for visual methodology in the production of a card set. The framework consists of seven concepts that support visual reasoning: visual immediacy, impetus, impedance, association, abduction, blending, and analogy. Our results show that these concepts were useful for finding out what types of images were communicating precisely the intended meaning and what types inspired associations, blending, and abduction