Open AccessRejected!: Design Research, Publics and the Purging of New Technologies
Author(s) -
CESAFSKY LAURA
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2018.01236
Subject(s) - publics , pragmatism , politics , key (lock) , sociology , public relations , political science , epistemology , media studies , computer science , law , computer security , philosophy
A challenge for design research today lies in naming, knowing and accounting for people who are not direct users of our technologies, but who are nonetheless affected and compelled to interact with them in daily life. This Pecha Kucha takes us to the streets of Bogotá, Colombia, where a new bus system that was roundly rejected becomes a cautionary tale on the perils of ignoring the painpoints of ‘non‐direct users.’ Drawing from pragmatist political science, I propose we can usefully understand this latter group as a ‘technological public,’ and I touch on key difficulties of designing for publics.