Capital and CHI: Technological Capture and How It Structures CHI Research

TL;DR

This paper theorizes how capital influences CHI research through technological capture, shaping the field's research directions and values by linking it closely with underlying economic forces.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of technological capture to explain how capital structures CHI research and categorizes its effects into four broad forms.

Findings

Technological capture influences CHI research directions.

CHI research is shaped by market and external factors.

The field's values are inherited from underlying capital.

Abstract

This paper advances a theoretical argument about the role capital plays in structuring CHI research. We introduce the concept of technological capture to theorize the mechanism by which this happens. Using this concept, we decompose the effect on CHI into four broad forms: technological capture creates market-creating, market-expanding, market-aligned, and externality-reducing CHI research. We place different CHI subcommunities into these forms -- arguing that many of their values are inherited from capital underlying the field. Rather than a disciplinary- or conference-oriented conceptualization of the field, this work theorizes CHI as tightly-coupled with capital via technological capture. The paper concludes by discussing some implications for CHI.