Postcolonial computing: a lens on design and development
Abstract
As our technologies travel to new cultural contexts and our designs and methods engage new constituencies, both our design and analytical practices face significant challenges. We offer postcolonial computing as an analytical orientation to better understand these challenges. This analytic orientation inspires four key shifts in our approach to HCI4D efforts: generative models of culture, development as a historical program, uneven economic relations, and cultural epistemologies. Then, through reconsideration of the practices of engagement, articulation and translation in other contexts, we offer designers and researchers ways of understanding use and design practice to respond to global connectivity and movement.
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HCI scholars in post-colonial computing argue that many ideas western scholars hold about computer use in non-western contexts are often biased by their own experiences in the West.
“HCI scholars in post-colonial computing argue that many ideas that western scholars hold around how computers are used in non-western contexts are often biased by their own experiences in the West [47].”
From RacketStore (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
The dynamic interplay between technology and society opens up possibilities for localized adaptation and re-imagination by users, even in the face of seemingly powerful global technologies.
“This dynamic interplay opens up possibilities for localized adaptation and re-imagination by users, even in the face of seemingly powerful global technologies [10, 56, 105].”
From AI and Non-Western Art Worlds: Reimagining Critical AI Futures through Artistic Inquiry and Situated Dialogue (2025) · cites this paper as [56]
Adoption of technology is deeply influenced by cultural context, and technological analyses of impact and use cannot be universally applied or ported over.
“Works of Irani [56], Raval [91], Ahmed [3], Chandra [25], Das [31], and Kumar [66], amongst others, have shown us that adoption of technology is deeply influenced by cultural context, and as such, technological analyses of impact and use cannot be universally applied or ported over.”
From AI and Non-Western Art Worlds: Reimagining Critical AI Futures through Artistic Inquiry and Situated Dialogue (2025) · cites this paper as [56]
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References 39 · Cited by 780
- Authors
- Irani, L., Vertesi, J., Dourish, P., Philip, K., & Grinter, R. E.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2010-04-10
- Pages
- 1311-1320
- OpenAlex
- W2130645129
- Cited by
- 780
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 88 · 2025: 69 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 63 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 42 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 12.80
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Usability and User Interface Design
- Keywords
- cultural epistemology, translation, global connectivity, cultural context of technology
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