Weiser's dream in the Korean home: collaborative study of domestic roles, relationships, and ideal technologies

Following Bell and Dourish's call for a "ubicomp of the present," we visited 14 households in Korea, where Weiser's dreams come true, to study their social dynamics and domestic technologies as a part of these dynamics. We used a participatory research approach in which participants, acting as collaborative ethnographers and co-designers, chose how to describe their homes to us and which existing technologies to discuss. A qualitative analysis of the conversations identified two main themes. The first finding is the highly gendered nature of roles in the Korean home, influenced by traditional Confucian values and reinforced by contemporary neo-liberal norms. The second finding is that domestic technologies are used, adopted, and imagined in the context of these gendered social dynamics rather than just according to functional needs. In conclusion, we emphasize the need to attend to the social dynamics of the home in the design of politically sensitive domestic technologies, which will enable the inclusion of marginalized voices, such as women, in design.

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