Human-Computer Insurrection: Notes on an Anarchist HCI

TL;DR

This paper advocates for an anarchist approach to HCI, emphasizing emancipatory autonomy and dismantling systemic oppression through principles and accountability mechanisms to foster counterpower and social change.

Contribution

It introduces an explicit political framework for HCI rooted in anarchist principles, aiming to reorient the field towards social justice and emancipatory autonomy.

Findings

Proposes principles and accountability mechanisms for anarchist HCI.

Suggests a framework for creating prefigurative counterpower.

Encourages radical reorientation of HCI towards social justice.

Abstract

The 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 to lack an explicitly articulated politic, which we argue re-inscribes and amplifies systemic oppression. In this paper, we set out an explicit political vision of an HCI grounded in emancipatory autonomy - an anarchist HCI, aimed at dismantling all oppressive systems by mandating suspicion of and a reckoning with imbalanced distributions of power. We outline some of the principles and accountability mechanisms that constitute an anarchist HCI. We offer a potential framework for radically reorienting the field towards creating prefigurative counterpower - systems and spaces that exemplify the world we wish to see, as we go about building the revolution in increment.