Abstract:
Many HCI researchers have recently begun to examine the
opportunities to use ICTs to promote environmental
sustainability and ecological consciousness on the part of
technology users. This paper examines the way that
traditional HCI discourse obscures political and cultural
contexts of environmental practice that must be part of an
effective solution. Research on ecological politics and the
political economy of environmentalism highlight some
missing elements in contemporary HCI analysis, and
suggest some new directions for the relationship between
sustainability and HCI. In particular, I propose that
questions of scale – the scales of action and the scales of
effects – might provide a useful new entry point for design
practice.
Institution:
University Of California, Irvine