Design for existential crisis in the anthropocene age

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

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.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationC and T 2017 - 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, Conference Proceedings
Number of pages10
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Publication date26 Jun 2017
Pages270-279
ISBN (Electronic)9781450348546
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies: Technologies for the Common Good, C and T 2017 - Troyes, France
Duration: 26 Jun 201730 Jun 2017

Conference

Conference8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies: Technologies for the Common Good, C and T 2017
LandFrance
ByTroyes
Periode26/06/201730/06/2017
SponsorCentre National de la Rechercue Scientifique (CNRS)
SeriesACM International Conference Proceeding Series
VolumePart F128532

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

    Research areas

  • Change, Decency, Design, Dignity, Fulfillment, Meaning

ID: 303706350