JCSCW Vol. 31 (2022)

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  • Journal Article
    Designing Digital Participatory Budgeting Platforms: Urban Biking Activism in Madrid
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Menendez-Blanco, Maria; Bjørn, Pernille
    Civic technologies have the potential to support participation and influence decision-making in governmental processes. Digital participatory budgeting platforms are examples of civic technologies designed to support citizens in making proposals and allocating budgets. Investigating the empirical case of urban biking activists in Madrid, we explore how the design of the digital platform Decide Madrid impacted the collaborative practices involved in digital participatory budgeting. We found that the design of the platform made the interaction competitive, where individuals sought to gain votes for their single proposals, rather than consider the relations across proposals and the larger context of the city decisions, even if the institutional process rewarded collective support. In this way, the platforms’ design led to forms of individualistic, competitive, and static participation, therefore limiting the possibilities for empowering citizens in scoping and self-regulating participatory budgeting collaboratively. We argue that for digital participatory budgeting platforms to support cooperative engagements they must be revisable and reviewable while supporting accountability among participants and visibility of proposals and activities.
  • Journal Article
    Participatory Design Going Digital: Challenges and Opportunities for Distributed Place-Making
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Slingerland, Geertje; Murray, Maria; Lukosch, Stephan; McCarthy, John; Brazier, Frances
    COVID-19 has urged researchers to explore new options for distributed participatory design, as physical meetings and workshops became unfeasible. This situation posed new challenges but also opportunities, in particular with respect to engagement and inclusion. This paper focuses on distributed PD with Irish teenagers to support place-making during this period: to build relationships with each other and the community. In a two-week online summer school, teenagers explored a concern or highlighted a unique aspect of their local community and designed digital artworks in response. Activities and materials were designed to support reflection, empowerment, inclusiveness, emergence, and playfulness for participatory place-making. Analysis of the summer school provides insights and guidance on the design of online PD for engaging experiences, especially in the context of place-making.
  • Journal Article
    Designing a Data Visualisation for Interdisciplinary Scientists. How to Transparently Convey Data Frictions?
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Panagiotidou, Georgia; Poblome, Jeroen; Aerts, Jan; Vande Moere, Andrew
    This study investigates how the frictions that emerge while synthesising disparate datasets can be transparently conveyed in a single data visualisation. We encountered this need while being embedded in an academic consortium of four epistemologically-distant scientific teams, who wanted to develop new interdisciplinary hypotheses from their merged datasets. By inviting these scientists to collaboratively develop visualisation prototypes of their data within their own and then towards the other disciplines, we uncovered four data frictions that relate to discipline-specific interpretations of data, methodological approaches, ways of handling data uncertainties, as well as the large differences in dataset scale and granularity. We then recognised how the resulting visualisation prototypes contained several promising techniques that addressed these frictions transparently, such as retaining their overall visualisation context and using visual translators to mediate between differing scales. Driven by critical data discourse that calls for frictions to be foregrounded rather than be occluded, we generalised these techniques into a series of actionable design considerations. While originating from a single case of an interdisciplinary collaboration, we believe that our findings form a crucial step towards enabling a more transparent and accountable interdisciplinary data visualisation practice.
  • Journal Article
    How Live Streaming Changes Shopping Decisions in E-commerce: A Study of Live Streaming Commerce
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Wang, Ye; Lu, Zhicong; Cao, Peng; Chu, Jingyi; Wang, Haonan; Wattenhofer, Roger
    Live Streaming Commerce (LSC) is proliferating in China and gaining traction worldwide. LSC is an e-commerce service where sellers communicate with consumers through live streaming while consumers can place orders within the same system. Despite the significant involvement of consumers in LSC, it has not been systematically analyzed how consumers make shopping decisions when engaging with LSC. In this paper, we conduct a mixed-methods study, consisting of surveys ( N 1 = 240) and follow-up interviews ( N 2 = 16) with LSC consumers. We focus on two features of LSC, i.e., the communication between merchants and consumers through live streaming and the participation of streamers, and aim to understand how these changes influence consumers’ decision-making process in LSC. We find that LSC enables merchants to exchange information with consumers based on their needs and provide additional customer services. Because of the appropriate information about the products they acquire and the enjoyable shopping atmosphere, consumers are willing to purchase products in LSC. As the intermediaries between merchants and consumers, streamers utilize their independent identity from merchants to enhance consumers’ awareness of shopping and persuade their online shopping decisions. Moreover, we consider the opportunities and challenges of current LSC services and provide implications for LSC services and the research community regarding the development of LSC.
  • Journal Article
    Humor and Stereotypes in Computing: An Equity-focused Approach to Institutional Accountability
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Borsotti, Valeria; Bjørn, Pernille
    We propose equity-focused institutional accountability as a set of principles to organize equity, inclusion, and diversity efforts in computer science organizations. Structural inequity and lack of representation of marginalized identities in computing are increasingly in focus in CSCW research – and research institutions as well as tech organizations are struggling to find ways to advance inclusion and create more equitable environments. We study humor in a computer science organization to explore and decode how negative stereotypes create unnecessary and avoidable barriers to inclusion and counter efforts to creating a welcoming environment for all. We examine the humor embedded in sociomaterial artefacts, rituals, and traditions, and uncover the stereotyped narratives which are reproduced in formal and informal spaces. We argue that these stereotyped narratives both pose a risk of activating stereotype threat in members of marginalized groups, and of normalizing and reproducing ideas of who belongs in computer science. We situate and discuss the complexity of institutional accountability in the context of a traditionally participatory and collegial model of governance. As a way forward we propose three principles for an equity-focused approach to accountability in computer science organizations: 1) Examine organizational traditions and spaces to critically evaluate challenges for inclusion; 2) Normalize critical reflection in the core practices of the organization; 3) Diversify and improve data collection.
  • Journal Article
    Choice, Negotiation, and Pluralism: a Conceptual Framework for Participatory Technologies in Museum Collections
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) Hansson, Karin; Dahlgren, Anna Näslund
    In an era of big data and fake news, museums’ collection practices are particularly important democratic cornerstones. Participatory technologies such as crowdsourcing or wikis have been put forward as a means to make museum collections more open and searchable, motivated by a desire for efficiency but also as a way to engage the public in the development of a more diverse and polyphonic heritage. However, there is a lack of a nuanced vocabulary to describe participatory technologies in terms of democracy. Without a deeper understanding of how technology shapes the overall structures, there is a risk that the tools instead undermine democratic ambitions. Addressing the need to conceptualize democracy in these contexts, we therefore develop a framework for participatory technologies with an eye toward the long-term development and preservation of cultural heritage. In this framework different democratic processes intersect with democratic values, from a liberal conception of democracy to a more deliberative democracy, to an agonistic pluralism emphasizing the importance of acknowledging conflict and diversity. To firmly ground our vocabulary in museum collection practices, we have investigated two cases from museums in the US that have opposite participatory strategies for enriching images with metadata; the Smithsonian Transcription Center, and the National Gallery of Art collection on Wikimedia Commons. These cases demonstrate how the framework can be used to identify patterns of participation showing the support for different values and processes. Furthermore, our conceptual investigation points out a contradiction in Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) research, between the pluralism and conflicts emphasized in more critical and participatory design perspectives used in the development of design , and the features in the actual design of participatory technologies , emphasizing consistency and access.
  • Journal Article
    Understanding Nomadic Practices of Social Activist Networks Through the Lens of Infrastructuring: the Case of the European Social Forum
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 4, 2022) de Carvalho, Aparecido Fabiano Pinatti; Saeed, Saqib; Reuter, Christian; Rohde, Markus; Randall, David; Pipek, Volkmar; Wulf, Volker
    Within CSCW and HCI, an increasing body of literature has been demonstrating the essential relevance of infrastructures and infrastructuring to the work of people engaging in technologically mediated nomadicity. Tech Nomads – or T-Nomads, as they are sometimes called – not only rely on technological, human , and environmental infrastructural components – such as Wi-Fi, technical support, space, and basic resources such as light and power outlets – but they also have to engage in infrastructuring to mobilise their workplaces and effectively accomplish work in and across different locations. In this article, we bring an infrastructuring perspective to understanding nomadic practices concerning the organisation of complex collaborative events. We introduce findings from a long-term investigation focusing on how infrastructures are re-instantiated with the help of digital technologies, according to emerging demands from T-Nomads. Our findings demonstrate the need for a ‘non-essentialist’ approach to nomadicity, one which recognises the character of nomadic work and its varied aspects in different contexts. We extend the infrastructuring literature by demonstrating how infrastructuring work is done in a complex collaborative initiative, as the organisation of the annual European Social Forum.
  • Journal Article
    The Tension between National and Local Concerns in Preparing for Large-Scale Generic Systems in Healthcare
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 3, 2022) Ellingsen, Gunnar; Hertzum, Morten; Melby, Line
    Large-scale generic systems are typically adapted to local practice through configuration. This is especially important in healthcare, which involves a plurality of institutions and users. However, the decision to acquire a generic system in public healthcare is typically founded on regional and national health policy goals, which often are translated into various forms of standardization. As a result, national and regional health policy interests may stand in contrast to interests on the local level. Therefore, we analyze how national and local concerns are weighed against each other in the preparations for implementing large-scale generic systems in healthcare. We explore what role configuration plays and what the prospects are for long-term development. We contribute with insight into how the organizational consequences of generic systems are formed already in the preparation phase and point to how configuration easily results in standardization, thereby basically privileging national and regional health goals at the expense of local needs. Empirically, we focus on the preparations for implementing the Epic electronic health record in Central Norway.
  • Journal Article
    The March of Chatbots into Recruitment: Recruiters’ Experiences, Expectations, and Design Opportunities
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 31, No. 3, 2022) Koivunen, Sami; Ala-Luopa, Saara; Olsson, Thomas; Haapakorpi, Arja
    Organizations’ hiring processes are increasingly shaped by various digital tools and e-recruitment systems. However, there is little understanding of the recruiters’ needs for and expectations towards new systems. This paper investigates recruitment chatbots as an emergent form of e-recruitment, offering a low-threshold channel for recruiter-applicant interaction. The rapid spread of chatbots and the casual nature of their user interfaces raise questions about the perceived benefits, risks, and suitable roles in this sensitive application area. To this end, we conducted 13 semi-structured interviews, including 11 interviews with people who are utilizing recruitment chatbots and two people from companies that are developing recruitment chatbots. The findings provide a qualitative account of their expectations and motivations, early experiences, and perceived opportunities regarding the current and future use of chatbots in recruitment. While chatbots answer the need for attracting new candidates, they have also introduced new challenges and work tasks for the recruiters. The paper offers considerations that can help to redesign recruitment bots from the recruiter’s viewpoint.