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Design for existential crisis in the anthropocene age

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conference contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 06:16 authored by Ann LightAnn Light, Alison Powell, Irina Shklovski
What should be our orientation to the socio-technical as climate predictions worsen; ecological crises and wars escalate mass migration and refugee numbers; right-wing populism sweeps through politics; automation threatens workers' jobs and austerity policies destabilize society? What is to be done when it is not "business as usual" and even broken concepts of progress seem no longer to be progressing? We ask how to design for the common good, focusing on human needs for meaning, fulfillment, dignity and decency, qualities which technology struggles to support but can easily undermine. We juxtapose the design of computing that offers hope with that which offers only distraction, propose four modes to design for (being attentive, critical, different and in it together) and conclude with a plea to avoid tools that encourage a blinkered existence at a time of great uncertainty and change.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T '17); Troyes, France; 26-30 June 2017

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

Page range

270-279

Event type

conference

ISBN

978145034854

Department affiliated with

  • Engineering and Design Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-05-12

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-07-11

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-05-12

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