On the Grounds of Solutionism: Ontologies of Blackness and HCI

Abstract

Why is the solution the end point to a problem? While many in HCI and design have examined the impulse to solve problems—the solutionist or techno-solutionist mindset—we examine the logic that binds the solution and the problem together as a pair. Focusing on the timely and consequential problem of systemic racial injustice, we think through the paradoxical possibility that the pairing of the problem and solution (so often treated as the default in design and HCI) perpetuates the very conditions we seek to improve. With Calvin Warren’s profound Afro-pessimism, we recognize how the tools used to solve structural inequities around Black life are constructed with inequities themselves. The problem-solution therefore is a dead end. We use this paradox as an invitation to rethink ongoing efforts to seek equity and justice more broadly, setting out a fragile but hopeful path for HCI and design.

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

“…future dimensions of African HCI identities is not an isolated issue as it develops on earlier accounts that have shown the complexities of asserting locality in the language of innovations [16,34,35,193]. The emphasis here is not on contextualizing the often-fluid identities of African HCI researchers and practitioners [8,29,193], but more concerned with how unsettling the universalized language of techno-science can open possibilities for developing the capabilities of African communities to grapple with modern conditions of globalisation [18,52]. This is developed on the backdrop that the models informing design innovation perform within a specific mode of identification, albeit in ways that denote how existing structures of modernity create dependencies while polarizing differences [89,91].…”

“…Specific factors that might have supported its partnership/mentorship approach to social issues is the avoidance of handholding activities that could lead to the utilisation of packaged interventions [179, p.124]. What this might suggest is that people s inspiration brings about structural changes, not technology; technology is merely a means and not the end and that the problem-solution mindset is a dead end on arrival [52]. Even with the proliferation of the religion-like culture of technology as aa panacea of social issues, techno-solutions often present alternative techniques to organisations that could relieve man of the task to satisfy natural necessities, and as such doesn t necessarily demand changes to the underlying principles directing man s being in the program of existence.…”

“…can re-create the structural inequalities embedded in modern society (see. [52] or a critical view on such pairing as applied to the binaries of the colonized as living laboratory and the colonizer as the scientist).…”