Towards a Feminist HCI Methodology: Social Science, Feminism, and HCI Shaowen Bardzell Jeffrey Bardzell Indiana University Indiana University 919 E 10Th St
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CHI 2011 • Session: HCI for all May 7–12, 2011 • Vancouver, BC, Canada Towards a Feminist HCI Methodology: Social Science, Feminism, and HCI Shaowen Bardzell Jeffrey Bardzell Indiana University Indiana University 919 E 10th St. 919 E 10th St. Bloomington, IN, 47408 Bloomington, IN, 47408 [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT stakeholders, exemplified, for example, by sustainable in- With substantial efforts in ubiquitous computing, ICT4D, teraction design. and sustainable interaction design, among others, HCI is increasingly engaging with matters of social change that go In responding to these needs, HCI has turned to a wide beyond the immediate qualities of interaction. In doing so, range of cultural theories, from philosophical pragmatism to HCI takes on scientific and moral concerns. This paper ex- literary theory. A recent example of this trend is the notion plores the potential for feminist social science to contribute of “feminist HCI,” which [3] characterizes as the integra- to and potentially benefit from HCI’s rising interest in so- tion of feminist theory in HCI practice. Yet as promising as cial change. It describes how feminist contributions to de- feminist HCI seems, beyond clearing a space for feminist bates in the philosophy of science have helped clarify HCI and introducing a set of qualities that characterize fem- relationships among objectivity, values, data collection and inist interaction, [3] leaves open what exactly such an ap- interpretation, and social consequences. Feminists have proach might look like in practice. proposed and implemented strategies to pursue scientific Feminism seems well positioned to support HCI’s increas- and moral agendas together and with equal rigor. In this ing awareness and accountability for its own social and paper, we assess the epistemologies, methodologies, and cultural consequences, so developing feminist HCI is methods of feminist social science relative to prior and on- worthwhile. A particularly promising source is feminist going research efforts in HCI. We conclude by proposing social science, where researchers have practiced, theorized an outline of a feminist HCI methodology. about, and debated scientific approaches committed to so- Author Keywords cial progress. For example, feminist researchers Hanmer Feminism, design, theory, user research, feminist HCI, and Saunder [22] used community-based, at home inter- methodology, philosophy of science, post-positivism views to study domestic violence in order to develop new forms of self-help and mutual aid among women. Naples ACM Classification Keywords [43] researched women on welfare and in college to reveal H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): the problematic construction of welfare recipients as lack- Miscellaneous. ing work motivation. At its core, feminist social science General Terms research advocates for the integration of knowledge and Design, Theory responsible action, with a mandate for both individual and social change, reflecting a core value of feminism: critiqu- INTRODUCTION ing and resisting the status quo [50]. However, feminist HCI’s move out of the workplace and into everyday life has social science is not directed specifically at HCI, and any had a host of profound implications. Technologies, evalua- appropriation of this kind of research into HCI will take tion criteria, user research and scientific paradigms have all some work, though some work in HCI, including participa- rushed to keep up with this change. In areas as diverse as tory design and other works that exhibit the values of femi- affective computing, experience design, and domestic tech- nist social science [10, 15, 36] are already working in this nologies, yesterday’s preoccupations with productivity and direction. efficiency seem quaint. Today, HCI is increasingly sensi- tive to its own influence on the broadest range of possible This paper explores the dynamic relations between values and different formulations of objectivity in the wake of post-positivist philosophy of science, stressing feminist Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for contributions to these debates and arguing for their applica- personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are bility to HCI today. not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, KNOWING TRUTH AND/OR DOING GOOD or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. At stake is the tension between traditional science (e.g., the CHI 2011, May 7–12, 2011, Vancouver, BC, Canada. logical positivism of Carnap and even much of contempo- Copyright 2011 ACM 978-1-4503-0267-8/11/05....$10.00. rary post-positivism) and a science that sees itself as social- 675 CHI 2011 • Session: HCI for all May 7–12, 2011 • Vancouver, BC, Canada ly and politically engaged. Whereas traditional science This tension between the disinterested pursuit of truth and champions the pursuit of truth and places values out of the role of human social perspectives and values in science bounds, the latter argues that socio-cultural values are in- has been a major issue in the history and philosophy of sci- evitably bound up in scientific practice and moreover that ence since the early 1950s, when Quine launched a series of that’s how it ought to be. To be responsive to this tension, eventually decisive attacks against logical positivism. Brief- science must negotiate between the Scylla and Charybdis of ly, Quine argued that scientific theories are always underde- a nihilistic fetish for pure truth (the unwanted extreme of termined by any data and demonstrated that social and traditionalism) and an ideological battle where positions pragmatic concerns were inextricably tied up with science precede and determine facts (the unwanted extreme of polit- [58]. Building on Quine, other thinkers subsequently ex- ically oriented science). At the heart of this problem is the plored ways that values interact with science [e.g., 52, 41] nature and implications of the intellectual value or ideal of and scientific practices emerge within social processes [e.g., objectivity. 34]. Operating within this post-Quinean tradition, feminist science has demonstrated that gender has significantly in- Contemporary philosopher of science Harold Kincaid char- fluenced both scientific processes and products and femi- acterizes scientific objectivity as a “virtue” and a “symptom nists developed their own analyses of the roles of values in of good science,” defining it as follows: science as well as in the social nature of scientific practice. [T]he ideal of an unbiased, disinterested pursuit of As an applied scientific field, HCI inherits these tensions the truth is the hallmark of science. Science is objec- from the social and natural sciences as well. In recent years, tive when our beliefs reliably indicate the way the work in HCI has increasingly raised concerns about the role world is rather than the way we want it to be. [33] of interaction designers’ commitments to values and socio- Key to this definition of objectivity is the scientist’s brack- political change, that is, the kinds of concerns that have, as eting of the self, that is, excluding from scientific analysis we have argued, a complex relationship with good science. one’s values, goals, fears, and hopes—in short, one’s per- Lest such commitments lead interaction designers to impos- spective as a living individual. Accordingly, the scientist is ing their own perspectives and values on others, designers able to assert “proposition p” and not “proposition p, in my have an ethical obligation to aspire toward a moral equiva- opinion.” In a recent philosophical essay on objectivity in lent of scientific objectivity. Moral objectivity, as described science, ethics, and aesthetics, Richard Miller offers a two- by [42], involves both perspective-independent (moral) pronged definition of an objective scientific truth claim, truth claims and truth-enhancing moral reasoning processes. writing that it both (a) is perspective-independent and also Making perspective-independent truth claims about just or (b) features data sufficient to compel agreement from quali- virtuous action must, for Miller, be based on “certain fun- fied and rational others [42]. On this view, truth claims damental assumptions” (e.g., that “justice requires equal come from data, not from individuals, and the only question concern and respect for everyone willing to show equal is whether the data is compelling enough to force assent to concern and respect for all”), and these assumptions are the claims they imply. Many of HCI’s scientific claims are comparable to the fundamental assumptions of science framed in this way: e.g., the performance increases of a new (e.g., that sense perception is basically reliable). By “certain interface [e.g., 32], the features and organization of team- processes [that are] truth-enhancing,” Miller means that based collaboration [e.g., 45], and measurable aspects of the some processes of moral reasoning are more likely than users’ affective response to interaction [e.g., 48]. others to lead to moral objectivity, such as maintaining standards for justice. The ideals or symptoms of good scien- Yet one of the most valorized outcomes of scientific re- tific versus good moral reasoning only partly overlap, how- search in HCI is its implications for design. But design is an ever, so any scientist’s integration of scientific and moral intervention, an intentional effort to create change. As de- rationality is recognized as a non-trivial problem. sign theorist Papanek defines it, design’s job is “to trans- form man’s environment and tools and, by extension, man Inasmuch as HCI is to pursue a socially conscious agenda, himself,” [47]. Papanek’s definition here seems to fore- it will need to develop its own strategies for achieving both ground the very concerns—human values and intentions to scientific and moral objectivities, conflicts between the two bring about social change—that are backgrounded by scien- notwithstanding.