Abstract:
How are technologies are designed and used tactically by activists? As the HCI community starts to contend with social inequalities, there has been recent debate about how HCI researchers should contend with issues of social justice. However, there is little research with people such as social justice activists who do contend with social problems, and are using technology such as mobile phones and social media. I build on this knowledge within the context of a social movement organization working to stop street harassment (harassment towards women and minorities in public) called Hollaback (ihollaback.org).
In this work, I have positioned myself as an action researcher doing research and building technologies such as mobile apps and a blogging platform to collect stories of harassment and to support activists. The organization has collected over 3000 stories and represents 50 different locales in 17 countries. Through a series of studies, I look at how the technology impacts the organization, activists, and those who contribute stories of harassment. I found evidence that the storytelling platform helps participants fundamentally shift their cognitive and emotional orientation towards their experience and informs what activists do on the ground. My results suggest that doing activism using technology can help remove some barriers to participation; however, it was often more work than the activists expected. I also look at how different social media tactics can increase the number of followers and how traditional media plays a role in these tactics. My work contributes to the HCI community theoretically by building on social movement theory, feminist HCI, and action research methodology. My investigation sheds light empirically on how technology plays a role in a social movement organization, and how it impacts those who participate.