Speculation and the Design of Development

Abstract

This paper examines the role of technoscientific speculation in large-scale development projects in postcolonial spaces, building on recent work in STS, design research, and postcolonial studies in and beyond CSCW. We analyze two historical cases of technology-infused development projects in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador and in Jamaica. We find that speculation in these contexts remixes the constructive stance toward speculation typical for normative technoscience with the critical, contesting orientation of speculative design. Conflicts between these stances are resolved by leveraging fantasy for pragmatic ends, grounding audacious fictions in imported realities, unmooring from conventional understandings of linear technological progress, and using even conservative futures to trouble colonial conventions.

Wie gestalten wir Gesellschaft?

“…So ergibt sich aus dem Umstand, dass SD lange Zeit als exklusive Domäne von Designer:innen angesehen wurde (Malpass 2017;Tonkinwise 2014), der Vorwurf, dass SD vornehmlich von westlichen, elitären und mitunter patriarchalen Perspektiven geprägt ist (Light 2021;Prado de O. Martins 2014;Tonkinwise 2014). Dieser Umstand bedingt auch das für Kritiker:innen eher eng gefasste thematische Spektrum an Kritik, die SD-Projekte oftmals auslösen (Farias et al 2022;Sengers et al 2021;Ward 2021). Wenn also SD-Praxis aus dem Kontext professioneller Designer:innen emergierend mehr an der Ästhetisierung von Zukunftsvisionen als an der Öffnung für einen partizipativen imaginativen Prozess interessiert ist, erreichen weder die Praxis noch entstehende Artefakte jene Akteure, die von ihren thematischen Implikationen eigentlich betroffen wären (Gerber 2018;Light 2021).…”

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

“…The adoption of these approaches has led to a range of studies that view design futuring as a critical lens for drawing attention to neglected design themes (e.g. [45,87,88,158]) -themes that when brought into focus might point to how events of the present can either bring about changes to the probabilistic attribute of future or go further in concealing the narratives of the past. This thereby presents design futuring as a politics that can interrogate the nature of thinking and making in themselves [98,164].…”

Healing Justice: A Framework for Collective Healing and Well-Being from Systemic Traumas

“…Jemisin essential in ofering examples of technologically driven futures grounded in Blackness [54]. Reynolds, Ferri, Gloerich, and other HCI practitioners [31,54,56] focus on how Afrofuturist literature ofers critical components that combat anti-Blackness in design strategies, an alternative to current speculative design that is often rooted in whiteness. Similar to Bardzell's call for a community of practice around feminist thoughts and ideas [6,7], Morris defnes Afrofuturist Feminism as situating transgressive, feminist practices as key to a progressive future.…”