In search of fairness: critical design alternatives for sustainability

Does fairness as an ideal fit within the broader quest for sustainability? In this paper we consider alternative ways of framing the wicked problem of sustainability. One that moves away from the established preference within HCI, towards technological quick-fixes. We adopt a critical lens to challenge the belief that by merely changing practices at an individual level one can do away with unsustainability. This thinking, we argue, is flawed for many reasons, but mostly because of the wickedness of the sustainability problem. By analyzing the case of Fairphone, we illustrate how it is possible to imagine and design change at a broader level of community engagement, when it comes to concerns of fairness and sustainability. We contribute to a deeper understanding of how social value laden enterprises along with open technological design can shape sustainable relationships between our environment and us.

[1]  Daniel Stokols,et al.  Social ecology, sustainability, and economics , 2013 .

[2]  Susanne Bødker,et al.  When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges , 2006, NordiCHI '06.

[3]  John R. Hipp,et al.  Enhancing the Resilience of Human–Environment Systems: a Social Ecological Perspective , 2013 .

[4]  Teresa Cerratto-Pargman.  Cerratto-Pargman (2014). A European strand of Sustainable HCI? , 2014, NordiCHI 2014.

[5]  Carl DiSalvo,et al.  Adversarial Design , 2012 .

[6]  Paul Dourish,et al.  HCI and environmental sustainability: the politics of design and the design of politics , 2010, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[7]  I. A. Richards,et al.  Practical Criticism: a Study of Literary Judgment , 1956, Nature.

[8]  Eli Blevis,et al.  Luxury & new luxury, quality & equality , 2007, DPPI.

[9]  Shaowen Bardzell,et al.  Social sustainability: an HCI agenda , 2012, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[10]  Bill Tomlinson,et al.  Toward an ecological sensibility: tools for evaluating sustainable HCI , 2010, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[11]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Random acts of kindness: The intelligent and context-aware future of reciprocal altruism and community collaboration , 2013, 2013 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS).

[12]  Daniel Pargman,et al.  Rethinking sustainability in computing: from buzzword to non-negotiable limits , 2014, NordiCHI.

[13]  Phoebe Sengers,et al.  Mapping the landscape of sustainable HCI , 2010, CHI.

[14]  D. Murphey,et al.  The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion , 2013 .

[15]  Teresa Inés Cerratto,et al.  Understanding limits from a social ecological perspective , 2015, First Monday.

[16]  Frans Berkhout,et al.  Beyond Cockpit-ism: Four Insights to Enhance the Transformative Potential of the Sustainable Development Goals , 2015 .

[17]  Phoebe Sengers,et al.  Beyond being green: simple living families and ICT , 2013, CHI.

[18]  Allison Woodruff,et al.  A vehicle for research: using street sweepers to explore the landscape of environmental community action , 2009, CHI.

[19]  Phoebe Sengers,et al.  No easy compromise: sustainability and the dilemmas and dynamics of change , 2014, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[20]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  The Role of Human Computation in Sustainability, or, Social Progress Is Made of Fossil Fuels , 2013, Handbook of Human Computation.

[21]  Allison Woodruff,et al.  A bright green perspective on sustainable choices , 2008, CHI.