A Critical, Empirical, and Reflexive Investigation of the Promise of Democratization in the Making Phenomenon

1 online resource (249 pages) : PDF

2021

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Many endeavors in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) align themselves with the promise of the democratization of technology production, a promise that has yet to be fulfilled due to gaps in access and underlying power dynamics. HCI has recently seen new glimmers of the promise of democratized technology production in the making phenomenon. In this dissertation, I present a normative theory project grounded in my experience of starting and running a university makerspace that engages with the concept of democratization directly. To construct and develop the Normative Theory of Human-Centered Making (NTHCM), I derived a definition of democratization, developed an argument for a shift in values to better meet that definition, and conducted a series of empirical studies to understand how the theory relates to practice. I then used feminist utopianism as a definition of democratization to evaluate the theory and reflect more broadly on the merits and challenges of this theory in light of HCI's promise of democratization. Overall, I found that while the NTHCM is grounded in a definition of democratization and grounded in relation to maker practices, it does not guide towards or capture democratization to a sufficient extent, nor does it relate directly enough to maker practices to shed light on how to shift them. However, it is useful nonetheless as a reflective lens for makers, makerspace leaders, and HCI researchers on maker practices and contexts. I also found that feminist utopianism, the construct I had planned to measure the NTHCM against, has merit as an alternate way of pursuing some of the same goals as the NTHCM. I reflect on the similarities and differences between the NTHCM and feminist utopianism and discuss how underlying assumptions I had made while developing the NTHCM may have gotten in the way of its ability to relate to maker practice or to fulfill the promise of democratization. Contributions include insights about the merits of the NTHCM as a reflective lens for maker leaders and HCI researchers, insights about the merits of feminist utopianism to guide maker leaders and HCI researchers towards the promise of democratization, and insights about underlying assumptions of HCI endeavors that may be in the way of fulfilling the promise of democratization.

doctoral dissertations

Computer science

Ph.D.

Democratization
Feminist Utopianism
Human-Computer Interaction
Makerspace

Computer Science

Wilson, David
Latulipe, Celine

Maher, Mary Lou
Lipford, Heather
Bardzell, Jeffrey
Freeman, Heather

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021.

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Okerlund_uncc_0694D_12687

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2394