This dissertation explores challenges and opportunities for equity and accessibility in computer science through an action-oriented, ethnographic approach. To do action-oriented research on equity in computing is to make trouble, by identifying and disrupting normative structures and dynamics, and by giving visibility to bottom-up, collective strategies for change that fall outside ‘the norm’. This project is both norm-critical and norm-creative. It examines how norms and values are (re)produced in institutional spaces through sociomaterial practices, data and artefacts (norm-critical analysis), and it generates change at different scales, within and without the department (norm-creative mode). The project highlights the intricacies and potentialities of enacting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work in unstable and open complex cooperative settings, expanding the traditional empirical domains of CSCW research. It also expands the scope of DEI work in computer science by including disability, an area long considered “a different diversity” (Kim & Aquino, 2017). The analytical framework interweaves CSCW, feminist technology studies, organization studies, and critical access studies. Based on a three-year ethnographic engagement in the Department of Computer Science at UCPH (DIKU), this dissertation aims to answer two research questions:

RQ1: How do sociomaterial practices, data and artefacts shape how equity is configured in computer science education?
RQ2: How can we re-orient cooperative practices to support equity in computer science?

This dissertation’s contributions can be divided into four parts: 1) an intersectional exploration of barriers and opportunities to equity and accessibility in computer science; 2) new strategies to reorient institutional efforts towards DEI (such as access grafting and equity-focused institutional accountability); 3) a methodology of ongoing formative critique and 4) a broadening of CSCW concepts by proposing access labor as an extension of articulation work, centering how nonnormative individuals encounter systems and organizational practices.

This dissertation includes four articles:
Paper 1 conceptualizes and discusses the process of noticing, documenting, and negotiating institutional change to promote DEI as ongoing formative critique. The article draws on two initiatives of institutional change in STEM settings: in engineering in the US (Samantha Breslin) and in computer science in Denmark (Valeria Borsotti). We discuss the affective dimensions involved in this form of engagement and propose five steps for enacting this approach productively.Paper 2 examines how norms and values around gender and race are (re)produced in the traditions of humor at DIKU, as they are encoded in sociomaterial artefacts, digital and physical spaces, and rituals. Using a multi-sited ethnographic approach, we trace stereotyped narratives on gender, techno-capitalism and race. We propose equity-focused institutional accountability as an analytical strategy to assist efforts towards DEI in computer science organizations.Paper 3 presents DOREEN, a norm-critical game of provocations based on a die and a set of adventure sheets. The game invites the players to reflect on stereotypes and gendered norms in computer science education. It also invites reflection on the transformative role of spaces of creative expression in universities.Paper 4 contributes to CSCW research at the intersection of accessibility and neurodiversity. We examine the invisible access labor experienced by neurodivergent students in three Danish computer science institutions. We use an exploratory and multi-stakeholder approach, drawing on interviews with students, teachers and disability officers, as well as document analysis. We map socio-technical barriers in three main areas and document how students improve collective access through micro-interventions. We explore how stigma, intersectional disadvantage and individualized approaches to disability shape critical access to resources, services and opportunities. We propose access grafting as a way to reorient organizational practices for equitable access.
Lastly, the dissertation also documents a series of collective actions and tactics for institutional change that have been generated at DIKU as part of this research project.