HCI in Africa is growing yet fragmented and underrepresented globally. We map 2002–2024 activity via a bibliometric scan of 500+ papers (~300 venues) and an institutional survey in 11 countries, situating results by population, connectivity, and policy readiness, and including work outside HCI labels (e.g., NGOs, tech hubs). We find a post-2020 rise in Africa-led publications and sharper venue stratification: mainstream venues feature mixed teams, while local outlets host much Africa-centered work; teaching shows strong pockets amid capacity, resource, and curriculum constraints. We contribute (1) a continent-scale, context-aware map of authorship and venues; (2) design provocations beyond expansionist logics; and (3) actionable steps for reviewers, venues, and institutions, supported by an open corpus and interactive dashboard.
As data infrastructures expand globally, the environmental and spatial imaginaries guiding data center development have become standardized, privileging temperate climates, abundant land, and low-cost energy. Singapore presents a paradox: a tropical, land-scarce city-state that nonetheless ranks among the densest data center hubs in the world. This paper examines how state and industry actors co-produce and contest localized sociotechnical imaginaries to legitimize this growth and, in the process, reconfigure what a “data center” is. Using a critical discourse analysis of government policy briefs, industry press releases, and national media, we show how global standards are adapted to Singapore’s resource constraints and how discursive practices position data centers as strategic, investable assets within its urban digital economy. By situating sociotechnical imaginaries in a postcolonial context and linking them to assetization theory, this study advances HCI understandings of data center infrastructure as financialized assets, offering insight into emerging trajectories of global digital infrastructure.
Since February 2022 the Ukrainian army has been resisting the Russian invasion; this defense would have been less effective without material and logistical support from civil society. While HCI and CSCW have examined ICT in crises, little addresses how civilian–military cooperation is enacted in interstate war and how civilians appropriate commercial technologies into military infrastructures. We report an interview study with observations (N=13) conducted in Lviv during the first five months of the full-scale invasion (Feb–Jul 2022). Our findings show how civilians performed largely invisible work to make soldiers’ work possible: they circumvented broken supply chains, fundraised through digital micro-donation tools, re-engineered commercial drones and software into command-and-control workflows, and joined early cyber and counter-information operations. We contribute to CSCW by theorizing this civilian engagement as wartime infrastructuring and appropriation under extreme risk, and by detailing methodological implications for conducting cooperative-work research in hybrid-war settings.
Beginning in the late 1980s, computer security researchers began discussing the risks associated with ``software monocultures.'' Within a decade, this metaphor had gained such prevalence that it could be invoked as self-evident, taking for granted that the industry should ``avoid monoculture in computer operating systems'' for reasons ``just as reasonable and obvious as avoiding monoculture in farming.'' This paper explores how the agricultural metaphor of ``monoculture'' migrated into computing discourse, naturalizing discussions of technical vulnerabilities and centralization patterns. Building on research from science and technology studies (STS), the authors argue that the monoculture metaphor is epistemologically significant, both describing and shaping computing practices. Rather than accepting the simplified narrative that monocultures represent only technical risks, the authors draw on agricultural history to develop a more nuanced understanding of monocultures as deeply entrenched systems of power relationships characterized by dependency, monopoly control, and systemic lock-in. The authors extend this analysis to the current development of a new monoculture of computing forming with the development of energy and resource intensive AI systems and infrastructure.
Peer review determines which scholarship is legitimized; however, review biases often disadvantage scholarship that diverges from the norm. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) lacks a systemic inquiry into how such biases affect underrepresented Global South (GS) scholarship. To address this critical gap, we conducted four focus groups with 16 HCI researchers studying the GS. Participants reported experiencing reviews that confined them to development research, dismissed their theoretical contributions, and questioned situated knowledge from GS communities. Both as authors and reviewers, participants reported experiencing the epistemic burden of over-explaining why knowledge from GS communities matters. Further, they noted being tokenized as "cultural experts'' when assigned to review papers and pointed out that the hidden curriculum of writing HCI papers often gatekeeps GS scholarship. Using epistemic oppression as a lens, we discuss how review practices marginalize GS scholarship and outline actionable strategies for nurturing equitable epistemological evaluation of HCI scholarship.
HCI's dominant assumptions of always-on and relatively ubiquitous internet connectivity often overlook other potential configurations of connectivity, which may embody alternative social values and politics, or promote alternative types of technology practices. Building on research exploring alternate configurations of connectivity, we develop and present three speculative scenarios in a North American context that configure internet connectivity differently than these assumptions. Each scenario features a "foot pedal" that mediates internet connectivity. Through the scenarios, we conceptualize connectivity as a multi-dimensional ecology. The scenarios explore how alternative configurations of connectivity implicate concerns related to dimensions of: social norms and rituals; maintenance, repair and governance; interests and decision-making beyond individual choice; and broader inequalities and systems of power. These suggest possible alternative ends and goals of internet connectivity. Finally, we offer reflections from our experience developing these scenarios for HCI scholars working with speculative practices.
As civic data typically involves multiple stakeholders and institutions, data work often happens across seamful spaces. We use seams as an analytical lens to examine data production in a civic data project mapping extreme heat islands to promote environmental and climate justice. Our analysis calls attention to the work of aligning multiple infrastructures as well as the temporal and political qualities of seamful arrangements. Throughout our participation in planning and executing this civic data project, our attention was consistently called to the seams during moments of breakdown. Examining the conditions of these misalignments, we argue that seams decay as underlying infrastructures shift over time through product development, personnel turnover, and institutional change. Further analyzing the responses and maintenance work needed to sustain or re-create alignment reveals how power dynamics are reinforced or asserted at the seams. Civic design interventions must attend to these temporal and political aspects of seamful spaces when working in collaboration with other city stakeholders.