A Systematic Review and Thematic Analysis of Community-Collaborative Approaches to Computing Research

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews 47 years of community-collaborative computing research, identifying key themes, challenges, and tensions, and offers methodological guidance to better center communities in HCI projects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive thematic analysis of community-collaborative approaches, highlighting challenges and proposing methods to improve community engagement in computing research.

Findings

Seven themes identified in project evolution.

Tensions related to researcher power and community positioning.

Guidelines proposed for community-centered research practices.

Abstract

HCI researchers have been gradually shifting attention from individual users to communities when engaging in research, design, and system development. However, our field has yet to establish a cohesive, systematic understanding of the challenges, benefits, and commitments of community-collaborative approaches to research. We conducted a systematic review and thematic analysis of 47 computing research papers discussing participatory research with communities for the development of technological artifacts and systems, published over the last two decades. From this review, we identified seven themes associated with the evolution of a project: from establishing community partnerships to sustaining results. Our findings suggest that several tensions characterize these projects, many of which relate to the power and position of researchers, and the computing research environment, relative to community partners. We discuss the implications of our findings and offer methodological proposals to guide HCI, and computing research more broadly, towards practices that center communities.