Moving Towards Epistemic Autonomy: A Paradigm Shift for Centering Participant Knowledge

TL;DR

This paper advocates for epistemic autonomy in HCI, emphasizing the importance of empowering marginalized communities to govern their own knowledge, through a new paradigm inspired by transfeminine principles and demonstrated via adapted research methods.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of epistemic autonomy as a new HCI paradigm, applying transfeminine principles to address epistemic injustice and proposing adapted research methods.

Findings

Epistemic autonomy is crucial for marginalized communities' empowerment.

Autoethnography and remote communities methods can support epistemic autonomy.

The paradigm shifts focus towards participant-led knowledge governance.

Abstract

Justice, epistemology, and marginalization are rich areas of study in HCI. And yet, we repeatedly find platforms and algorithms that push communities further into the margins. In this paper, we propose epistemic autonomy -- one's ability to govern knowledge about themselves -- as a necessary HCI paradigm for working with marginalized communities. We establish epistemic autonomy by applying the transfeminine principle of autonomy to the problem of epistemic injustice. To articulate the harm of violating one's epistemic autonomy, we present six stories from two trans women: (1) a transfem online administrator and (2) a transfem researcher. We then synthesize our definition of epistemic autonomy in research into a research paradigm. Finally, we present two variants of common HCI methods, autoethnography and asynchronous remote communities, that stem from these beliefs. We discuss how CHI is uniquely situated to champion this paradigm and, thereby, the epistemic autonomy of our research participants.