Many civic technologies within HCI, despite having various ambitions and purposes, fail in similar and predictable ways. In this article, we posit that the fundamental pathologies that have held back or obstructed digital civics studies are inherent in the way participatory and grassroots approaches are adopted by digital civics researchers. Specific aspects of the designer\u27s or researcher\u27s expertise and experience are often put aside in the pursuit of a (participatory/user-centered/co)-design that is diligent in its avoidance of technodeterminism and other forms of top-down-ism to the detriment of applying learning from lived experience
