Fostering Design-Policy Collaboration through Contestation: An Adversarial Futuring Method

TL;DR

This paper presents a scenario-based workshop method called Design-Policy Adversarial Futuring that fosters collaboration between design and policy by structuring contestation, demonstrated through a mobility domain case study.

Contribution

It introduces a novel adversarial futuring method to support HCI-policy engagement, enabling exploration of harms and legitimization of ideas in emerging tech domains.

Findings

The method surfaces shifting harms in autonomous mobility.

It translates policy abstractions into situated use cases.

It legitimizes extreme ideas while grounding policy reasoning.

Abstract

Emerging technologies introduce sociotechnical tensions that call for closer collaboration between technology design and policy. In this work, we introduce Design-Policy Adversarial Futuring, a scenario-based workshop method that supports design-policy engagement by structuring contestation between design and policy perspectives. We report on a workshop conducted in the autonomous mobility domain with 12 HCI researchers, used to explore and demonstrate the method in practice. The workshop illustrates how the adversarial futuring method can surface shifting harms, translate policy abstractions into situated use, and legitimise extreme ideas while maintaining grounded policy reasoning. This work contributes a reusable, exploratory method for supporting HCI-policy collaboration through contestation, which can be adapted across emerging technological domains.