Shifting Borderland of Technoscience: Tracing Trajectories of Critical Practice

Since the publication of Phil Agre’s [1] seminal work on critical technical practice, the sites of intersection between computation and society have multiplied, and so too have the sociotechnical borderlands we inhabit. Critical methodologies such as “critical design” [8,6,5], “reflective design” [3,4,7,9,15,12], “critical making” [11,6,7], “located accountability” [13, 14], “feminist HCI” [2], and “postcolonial computing” [10] have proliferated and are being taken up in increasingly diverse political, cultural and social contexts. As the sites of critical praxis have multiplied, new regimes like big data and social computing pose new challenges. Given the fluidity of the landscape it is important for us to articulate the specificities of our scholarly borderlands. By bringing together junior and senior scholars we aim to provide a forum for researchers in this area to learn from each other how to navigate changing terrains of technology research and design. To maximize in- depth collaboration between junior and senior scholars, we propose a format that includes in-depth mentoring sessions, panel presentations from junior and senior participants, group activities, and working sessions for steps forward. The goal of the proposed workshop is to foster cohesion and build mentoring relationships within the community by creating a space for open and honest dialogue about the challenges of conducting critical research and design practice. Outcomes from this workshop will be a shared knowledge base about praxis, tracing the trajectories, continuities, traversals and inheritances of critical sociotechnical research over the past decade, as well as strengthening of the critical technical practice community by way of establishing lasting mentorship relations.