On Activism and Academia

Abstract

In recent years HCI and CSCW work has increasingly begun to address complex social problems and issues of social justice worldwide. Such activist-leaning work is not without problems. Through the experiences and reflections of an activist becoming academic and an academic becoming an activist, we outline these difficulties such as (1) the risk of perpetuating violence, oppression and exploitation when working with marginalised communities, (2) the reception of activist-academic work within our academic communities, and (3) problems of social justice that exist within our academic communities. Building on our own experiences, practices and existing literature from a variety of disciplines we advocate for the possibility of an activist-academic practice, outline possible ways forward and formulate questions we need to answer for HCI to contribute to a more just world.

Including critical Approaches in HCI Curricula: A provocation

“…This was another aha moment for us, as it not only revealed an assumption that the contexts in which we work are the sites of activism but also the truth that activism is needed to challenge and change Western academic practices to fit with multiple worlds. This observation is in line with others who provided a set of reflective questions to guide us into deeper engagement with the kinds of meaning we create in our work, the kind of impacts we have, and the futures we are (or might be) creating as a direct result of our choices and actions [36].…”

“…Reflective tools and methods are needed to help designers a) develop such awareness, b) appreciate and tune in to existing and emerging power differences, c) recognize when and how to downplay their own voices, and d) interrogate the mindsets that dominate design encounters. These, we argue, should be the focus of an "African" HCI curriculum-a curriculum that inspires us to be reflexive and critical of our understanding of the world before "remaking the world through design" [36]. We then thought, is it only the "African" curriculum that would need such tools?…”

Context, Culture, and Fabulations

“…This was another aha moment for us, as it not only revealed an assumption that the contexts in which we work are the sites of activism but also the truth that activism is needed to challenge and change Western academic practices to fit with multiple worlds. This observation is in line with others reported by Leal et al [9], who provided a set of reflective questions to guide us into deeper engagement with the kinds of meaning we create in our work, the kind of impacts we have, and the futures we are creating. Future work could explore how such reflexive practices can be adopted as tools to navigate toward a living curriculum that encourages critically engaged research.…”

“…Reflective tools and methods are needed to help designers a) develop such awareness, b) appreciate and tune in to existing and emerging power differences, c) recognize when and how to downplay their own voices, and d) interrogate the mindsets that dominate design encounters. These, we argue, should be the focus of an African HCI curriculum-a curriculum that inspires us to be reflexive and critical of our understanding of the world before "remaking the world through design" [9]. The acts of tuning in and downplaying are not free of challenges, particularly when practitioners are expected to downplay their voices as activists rather than interventionists.…”

No More “Solutionism” or “Saviourism” in Futuring African HCI: A Manyfesto

“…This often takes the form of a conceptual, functional, or aesthetic provocation that stimulates critical thought and reflection using artistic and revolutionary strategies of campaigning [109]. Within the context of this paper, the adoption of a manyfesto is not considered activism nor entirely a diversification work [105] 8 , it is rather conceived as a dialectic of an intellectual protest among many protests that sounds the alarm of the existential crisis facing the actively ethnic African outlook towards the past, the present, and the future the coloniality of the imagination. The use of the term manyfesto in the sub-title against a manifesto is developed on the understanding that its politics demand continual engagement with the plurality of the social world in ways that does not require a particular opening for critical conversations.…”