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Title: Design(ing) 'Here' and 'There': Tech Entrepreneurs, Global Markets, and Reflexivity in Design Processes
HCI shapes in important ways dominant notions of what counts as innovation and where (good) design is located. In this paper, we argue for the continuous expansion of the body of critical and reflexive work that asks both researcher and designer to reflect on their values of design in the world. Drawing from ethnographic research in Accra, Ghana and Shenzhen, China, we illustrate how design is as much about making artifacts as it is about producing national identity, reputation, and economic gain. Technology entrepreneurs take from and resist the discourse of their cities as emerging sites of Silicon-Valley type innovation. They render the narrative of “catching up with the west” overly simplistic, ahistorical and blind to situated practices of design. This view, we argue, is critical for interrogating our views of design especially as it becomes more central in the contemporary global economy.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1617898
PAR ID:
10048800
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI '16
Page Range / eLocation ID:
2233 to 2245
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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