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1. Who needs control? A cultural perspective on the process of compensatory control

   https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12722  

   Gibbs, W_Connor; Kim, Heejung_S; Kay, Aaron_C; Sherman, David_K (December 2022, Social and Personality Psychology Compass)

   Abstract Compensatory control theory (CCT) provides a framework for understanding the mechanisms at play when one's personal control is challenged. The model suggests that believing the world is a structured and predictable place is fundamental, insofar as it provides the foundation upon which people can believe they are able to exert control over their environment and act agentically towards goals. Because of this, CCT suggests, when personal control is threatened people try to reaffirm the more foundational belief in structure/predictability in the world, so that they then have a strong foundation to reestablish feelings of personal control and pursue their goals. This review seeks to understand how the basic assumptions of these compensatory control processes unfold in different cultural contexts. Drawing on research and theorizing from cultural psychology, we propose that cultural models of self and agency, culturally prevalent modes of control, and culture‐specific motivations all have implications for compensatory control processes. Culture determines, in part, whether or not personal control deprivation is experienced as a threat to perceiving an orderly world, how/whether individuals respond to low personal control, and the function that responses to restore a sense of order in the world serve. A theoretical model of compensatory control processes across cultures is proposed that has implications for how people cope with a wide range of personal and societal events that potentially threaten their personal control. 

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2. Identity Theft, Trust Breaches, and the Production of Economic Insecurity

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00031224231189895  

   Brensinger, Jordan (August 2023, American Sociological Review)

   Across various domains of social life, organizational reliance on personal data and exposure to unanticipated financial hardship have transformed Americans’ life chances and access to opportunities. This article examines an area where they intersect: the hardship caused by breakdowns in information systems. I focus on the case of identity theft, showing how that event—experienced by tens of millions of Americans annually—contributes to economic insecurity. To do so, I first develop a theory of insecurity that links feelings of precariousness to breaches of trust at three levels: interpersonal, organizational, and systemic. Drawing on an original qualitative study of identity theft resolution, I find that most victims worried about their financial lives because they could no longer count on certain people, organizations, or systems. Beneath this commonality, race and class informed feelings of insecurity and associated coping strategies following identity theft. Low-income people and people of color tended to direct suspicion at personal networks and report ending relationships and informal assistance. In contrast, middle- and upper-income and White individuals disproportionately blamed organizations and demanded their protection. These findings—along with the trust-based theory that helped make them visible—have important implications for the study of insecurity, inequality, and trust in the information age. 

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3. Seamfulness and Culturally Responsive Computing

   https://doi.org/10.1109/RESPECT55273.2022.00014  

   Dixon, Colin.; Hsi, Sherry.; Oh, HyunJoo. (May 2021, Conference on Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT))

   To make computer science (CS) more equitable, many educational efforts are shifting foci from access and content understanding to include identification, agency, and social change. As part of these efforts, we look at how learners perceive themselves in relation to what they believe CS is and what it means to participate in CS. Informed by three design lenses, unblackboxing, culturally responsive computing, and creative production, we designed a physical computing kit and activities. Drawing from qualitative analysis of interviews, artifacts, and observation of six young people in a weeklong summer workshop, we report on the experiences of two young Black women designers. We found that using these materials young people were able to: leverage personal goals and prior experiences in computing work; feel as if they were figuring out computing systems; and recognize computational technologies as created by people for particular purposes. We observed that while the mix of materials and activities created some frustration for participants, it also prompted processes of community building and inquiry. We discuss implications for design of computational tools in equity-centered CS education and pose seamfulness as an emergent heuristic when designing for learning that engages young people with the social, not just material, systems of computing. 

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4. Exploring Approaches to Data Literacy Through a Critical Race Theory Perspective

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445141  

   Johnson, Britney; Rydal Shapiro, Ben; DiSalvo, Betsy; Rothschild, Annabel; DiSalvo, Carl (May 2021, Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)

   null (Ed.)

   In this paper, we describe and analyze a workshop developed for a work training program called DataWorks. In this workshop, data workers chose a topic of their interest, sourced and processed data on that topic, and used that data to create presentations. Drawing from discourses of data literacy; epistemic agency and lived experience; and critical race theory, we analyze the workshops’ activities and outcomes. Through this analysis, three themes emerge: the tensions between epistemic agency and the context of work, encountering the ordinariness of racism through data work, and understanding the personal as communal and intersectional. Finally, critical race theory also prompts us to consider the very notions of data literacy that undergird our workshop activities. From this analysis, we ofer a series of suggestions for approaching designing data literacy activities, taking into account critical race theory. 

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5. Making Design Tools Like a Weaver: Four Rules

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3596929  

   Devendorf, Laura; Wu, Shanel; Friske, Mikhaila (June 2023, XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students)

   What would happen if we designed CAD systems like a weaver designs cloth? Drawing from our ongoing collaborations with weavers, we suggest four rules to bring these qualities to your own practice: follow the materials, privilege the present and personal, form kinships with the past, and design systems of notations. 

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