The field of Human—Computer Interaction significantly contributes to economic growth, which has caused the polycrisis of climate change, economic inequality, social inequity, and more. Seeking alternatives, HCI researchers have suggested orienting HCI to the post-growth philosophy centered on values such as care, autonomy, solidarity, and justice, to focus beyond material accumulation. Post-growth suggests improving quality of life and redesigning infrastructures to become substantially less dependent on capitalist expansion; these can be achieved by shifting from growth to redistribution, production to reproduction and care, acquisition to sharing and community, and industrial development to localized development. This one-day online-first hybrid workshop invites HCI researchers, designers, practitioners, educators, and/or students to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of embracing post-growth in HCI.
Participants are asked to submit a 2–4 page document (500–1000 words) in a single-column ACM template by Feb 27, 2024 via a form below, with (a) images of sociotechnical artifacts related to or challenging post-growth, a description of the artifact, and an explanation on how does the artifact align with or against post-growth or (b) answering how your work in HCI relates to post-growth, what barriers do you envisage in embracing post-growth in the context of your work/domain, and how could the barriers be addressed.
The organizers will evaluate the submissions based on their relevance and potential to generate critical discussion; submissions from under-represented groups will be prioritized. Accepted submissions will be made available on the workshop website. All participants must register, and at least one author of the accepted submission must attend the workshop; all participants must register for at least one day of the conference.
This workshop is an initial effort to raise collective and critical consciousness about the economy’s increasing impingement in HCI and integrate post-growth ideas into transformative HCI practices for nurturing technology-mediated sustainable and just futures.