research-article

An insider perspective on community gains

Authors:

Gereon Koch Kapuire,

Heike Winschiers-Theophilus,

Edwin BlakeAuthors Info & Claims

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Volume 74, Issue C

Pages 124 - 143

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.10.004

Published: 01 February 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Community-based co-design takes place within a communal value system and opens up a new debate around the principles of participation and its benefits within HCI4D and ICTD projects. This study contributes to a current gap of expression of participants' gains, especially from an indigenous and marginalized rural communities' perspective. We have collected community viewpoints concurrently over the past five years of our longitudinal research project in rural Namibia. A number of themes have emerged out of the data as extracted by our native researcher, such as the special importance of learning technology, appreciation of the common project goal, the intrinsic pleasure of participation, frustrations about exclusions and other concerns, as well as immediate rewards and expectations of gaining resources. We acknowledge our own bias in the curation of viewpoints, and incompleteness of subjectivities while embedding our discussion within a local contextual interpretation. Through our learning from the communities we argue for a shift in perspective that acknowledges local epistemologies in HCI and participatory design and research. We suggest considering harmony and humanness as the primary values guiding community-based interactions. We discuss several challenges in the collaboration and co-creation of new knowledge at the frontier of multiple cultural, linguist, research and design paradigms. In the absence of generalized guidelines we suggest to pursue local workability while producing trans-contextual credibility. Subjective viewpoints of participants in participatory design project.Local rural researcher's reflection and data collection presented.Importance of learning, project aim alignment and intrinsic pleasure in participation.Frustrations about exclusions, project continuity and resource scarcity.Self-consciousness and pride as main impact of participation.

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Cited By

Nunes FSilva JFélix BMelo RWinschiers-Theophilus HBagalkot NVerdezoto NLazem SVan Heerden ANgubane TTill SDensmore M(2023)African Co-Design: Past, Present, and EmergingProceedings of the 4th African Human Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3628096.3629080(316-318)Online publication date: 27-Nov-2023
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3537797.3537817
Arendttorp ERodil KWinschiers-Theophilus HMagoath C(2022)Overcoming Legacy Bias: Re-Designing Gesture Interactions in Virtual Reality With a San Community in NamibiaProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517549(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
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cover image International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 74, Issue C

February 2015

147 pages

ISSN:1071-5819

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Copyright © Elsevier Ltd.

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Academic Press, Inc.

United States

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Published: 01 February 2015

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Nunes FSilva JFélix BMelo RWinschiers-Theophilus HBagalkot NVerdezoto NLazem SVan Heerden ANgubane TTill SDensmore M(2023)African Co-Design: Past, Present, and EmergingProceedings of the 4th African Human Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3628096.3629080(316-318)Online publication date: 27-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628096.3629080
Zhang MJi DChen X(2022)Building Trust in Participatory Design to Promote Relational Network for Social InnovationProceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2022 - Volume 210.1145/3537797.3537817(94-102)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3537797.3537817
Arendttorp ERodil KWinschiers-Theophilus HMagoath C(2022)Overcoming Legacy Bias: Re-Designing Gesture Interactions in Virtual Reality With a San Community in NamibiaProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517549(1-18)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491102.3517549
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Blake EMbinge UWinschiers-Theophilus HMaasz DStanley CMuashekele CKapuire G(2021)Going Beyond Empowered Design by Scaffolding Inter-community EngagementProceedings of the 10th International Conference on Communities & Technologies - Wicked Problems in the Age of Tech10.1145/3461564.3461579(224-233)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2021
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Said Valbuena B WMontoya Carvajal AFernanda Pinzon L(2020)From a ludic Loom of Ideas to the Spiral of Intercultural Co-creationProceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 110.1145/3385010.3385022(85-95)Online publication date: 15-Jun-2020
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