HCI and re-making place

Abstract

In recent years, technology, design and computing have been increasingly considered in public, media, and academic discourses as playing a significant role in supporting people affecting change in the places and communities in which they live. Drawing from three case studies that developed in North Tyneside’s Tynemouth, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Oreth in South East London, this dissertation shows how cross-disciplinary methodological perspectives—combining ontological politics, discourse and public work philosophy—can be used to understand the role of technology in everyday political processes, and drive the design of processes and socio-technical tools to open up spaces of contestation and dialogue in the everyday politics of place. The argument put forward in this dissertation is that in order to produce spatial processes that are more just and democratic, we must attend to people’s mundane communicative exchanges as forms of political action both conceptually and in practice; we must also recognize the heterogeneous actors and power dynamics involved, as well as the interpersonal and political work that contribute to forging and shaping these spatial processes. Vernacular rhetoric—the conception of everyday communicative exchanges as political action—forms the basis of this thesis. It is first utilised to understand the appropriation of a Facebook page by a group of residents concerned with the development of a derelict swimming pool. The perspective is then used to drive the design of processes that employed digitally supported urban walks to involve city residents in political discussions and reenvisioning of places in and about the city. The third case study explores how such participatory processes might be used to support a group of residents concerned with ‘rebuilding’ their community and wishing to create a digital walking trail in and about their housing estate undergoing urban regeneration. Finally, learning from the three studies is synthesized in a discussion on the relationship between vernacular politics, technologies and issues of spatial justice, and the role that HCI research, designed tools and participatory processes can play in supporting spaces of contestation and dialogue and the development of capacities to formulate collective rights towards the re-making of the places that matter to us.