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I am yet again navel-gazing about HCI research www.frank.computer/blog/2026/09...

frank.computerDoes human-computer interaction research enable anti-social practices? Does AI make this worse?Thanks to AI’s role in work, I’ve been stewing yet again on what it means to do human studies and accessibility research and why society seems to value this kind of specialization.

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@chrisshank.com

15 Sept

This is great, thanks for sharing your reflections! Worth noting that this is a growing community and literature about aligning HCI against reinforcing hegemonic power.

arxiv.orgHuman-Computer Insurrection: Notes on an Anarchist HCIThe HCI community has worked to expand and improve our consideration of the societal implications of our work and our corresponding responsibilities. Despite this increased engagement, HCI continues t...

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

16 Sept

Thanks so much! And yes!! That paper in particular is on my shortlist of pieces that outline what real, concrete, material resistance could look like.

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

I am gentle about it in my blog post, but this kind of work has not really gained traction in industry HCI work. And this isn't to discredit the work in academic spaces, of course. But we need more academics to embed themselves in practitioner spaces so we can operationalize our theory.

16/9/26, 3:34 pm0 reposts5 likes

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

16 Sept

Probably one of my favorite examples of this is Turkopticon by @gleemie.bsky.social because the contributions aren't just policies, guidelines, or methods interventions but explicitly sociotechnical. I love that we have this lineage in HCI. I want more! dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

dl.acm.orgTurkopticon | Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

B! 🐝 Cavello (they/them)

@b-cavello.bsky.social

16 Sept

For those not familiar (me), what does it mean to be “explicitly sociotechnical” mean?

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

17 Sept

Hah! Such a great question. I am being obtuse here, really. The reason "sociotechnical" as a term is helpful is typically because it opens the eyes of optimistic technology-builders to see and realize that their technologies (all technologies) are socially and culturally situated. (continued...)

Frank Elavsky (he/him) ⌁

@frank.computer

17 Sept

Technology participates in, reinforces, and establishes social norms, laws, cultures, agendas, etc. Technology isn't neutral. "Sociotechnical" clarifies that the socio- part can't be separated from the -technical part. (See: Winner's classic "Do Artifacts have Politics?") (continued...)