BinCam : Evaluating Persuasion at Multiple Scales

This chapter explores the BinCam project, a two-part persuasive technology, combining a mobile phone in a household bin with a social media website. Through three deployments in student households, we have attempted to explore the possibility to support change at the individual and household level in relation to recycling behavior. During our studies the BinCam system has also been exposed to wide media coverage. Through reflecting on the varied ways in which the BinCam system is framed, and through data collected through mixed methods, we discuss the implications of designing and evaluating interventions when they cross scales—from the individual, group, and into the wider public. We highlight the system and network as artifacts of discourse, and the media as a potential actor in the intervention.