Working with regulations in design

Are you interested in the interplay between regulation, sustainability (environmental, economic and social), and technology design?

This one-day workshop explores how encounters with different forms of regulation are interwoven with practices of sustainability before, during, and after the design of digital technologies. This workshop addresses the methodological, analytical, and design challenges of considering regulatory and policy-making aspects that can shape both the design and the processes of designing digital technologies. It will be an opportunity to bring together CSCW, Sustainability, Law and other interested scholars, representatives of public institutions, environmental collectives, and diverse actors interested in investigating the "knots" of relations between technology designs, regulatory aspects, and sustainable practices.

Read the full workshop call here

Join the workshop!

To participate, submit a 2-4 page position paper (references excluded) to anton.poikolainenrosen@dsv.su.se  in the ACM single-column format. 

The position paper could include case studies, conceptual reflections, or other empirical research related to digital design, regulatory encounters and sustainability.  Submissions will be reviewed based on their quality, novelty, and relevance to the workshop's topics. We plan to accept up to twenty contributions and run the workshop on-site. Accepted position papers will be published on the workshop  webpage.  At least one author of each accepted paper must attend the workshop and  register for it. 

Submission deadline: Aug 22, 2025

Notification of Acceptance:  Aug  30, 2025

Organisers 

The organisers constitute a team of researchers whose work spans sustainable interaction design, digital civics, and studies of law and IT. Their experience with running workshops at international venues, including ACM conferences (DIS, CSCW, NordiCHI, CHI), will be central to facilitating the planned activities. 

Chiara Rossitto is an Associate Professor of HCI at Stockholm University. Her work explores questions related to more sustainable futures, social change, and the politics of design. She is the principal investigator of a project investigating how encounters with the law and other regulations can be considered in designing for environmental sustainability. 

Rob Comber is an Associate Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He is part of the Sustainable Futures research team and works across issues of social and environmental sustainability from a critical feminist perspective. He has run workshops at CHI, DIS, and UbiComp and was the subcommittee chair for the CHI Subcommittee on Critical and Sustainable Computing. 

Anton Poikolainen Rosén is a postdoctoral researcher in HCI at Stockholm University. His research focuses on designing for sustainable futures and the more-than-human world. His most recent project focuses on regulation in processes of designing for municipal waste management.  

Stanley Joel Greenstein is an Associate Professor in Law and Information Technology at the Faculty of Law, Stockholm University. In examining the relationship between information technology and law, Stanley’s research and teaching have focused on the challenges associated with regulating emerging digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, and on how to embed legal values already at the design. 

Fatemeh Bakhshoudeh is a PhD student in HCI at the KTH  Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Her work focuses on the intersection of sustainable HCI, regulatory frameworks and, innovation within waste management. 

Lachlan Urquhart is a Senior Lecturer in Technology Law and HCI at the University of Edinburgh. His work examines the regulation and design of emerging information technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. He leads an interdisciplinary project researching how to build more sustainable consumer electronics. He leads the Regulation and Design Lab at the Institute of Design Informatics.  He has run workshops at CHI, DIS and NORDICHI.

Susan Lechelt is a Lecturer in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research explores how to design interventions, tools and prototypes to discuss the links between computing, climate change and sustainability. She is Co-I on a project exploring the Right to Repair and Internet of Things, and PI on a project exploring how sustainability concepts might be taught in the computing curriculum.