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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02579 |
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| _version_ | 1866916310327230464 |
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| author | Nelimarkka, Matti Vuorenmaa, Ville |
| author_facet | Nelimarkka, Matti Vuorenmaa, Ville |
| contents | Human-computer interaction scholars are increasingly touching on topics related to politics or democracy. As these concepts are ambiguous, an examination of concepts' invoked meanings aids in the self-reflection of our research efforts. We conduct a thematic analysis of all papers with the word `politics' in abstract, title or keywords ($n$=378) and likewise 152 papers with the word `democracy.' We observe that these words are increasingly being used in human-computer interaction, both in absolute and relative terms. At the same time, we show that researchers invoke these words with diverse levels of analysis in mind: the early research focused on mezzo-level (i.e., small groups), but more recently the work has begun to include macro-level analysis (i.e., society and politics as played in the public sphere). After the increasing focus on the macro-level, we see a transition towards more normative and activist research, in some areas it replaces observational and empirical research. These differences indicate semantic differences, which -- in the worst case -- may limit scientific progress. We bring these differences visible to help in further exchanges of ideas and human-computer interaction community to explore how it orients itself to politics and democracy. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_02579 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | What do we study when studying politics and democracy? A semantic analysis of how politics and democracy are treated in SIGCHI conference papers Nelimarkka, Matti Vuorenmaa, Ville Human-Computer Interaction Human-computer interaction scholars are increasingly touching on topics related to politics or democracy. As these concepts are ambiguous, an examination of concepts' invoked meanings aids in the self-reflection of our research efforts. We conduct a thematic analysis of all papers with the word `politics' in abstract, title or keywords ($n$=378) and likewise 152 papers with the word `democracy.' We observe that these words are increasingly being used in human-computer interaction, both in absolute and relative terms. At the same time, we show that researchers invoke these words with diverse levels of analysis in mind: the early research focused on mezzo-level (i.e., small groups), but more recently the work has begun to include macro-level analysis (i.e., society and politics as played in the public sphere). After the increasing focus on the macro-level, we see a transition towards more normative and activist research, in some areas it replaces observational and empirical research. These differences indicate semantic differences, which -- in the worst case -- may limit scientific progress. We bring these differences visible to help in further exchanges of ideas and human-computer interaction community to explore how it orients itself to politics and democracy. |
| title | What do we study when studying politics and democracy? A semantic analysis of how politics and democracy are treated in SIGCHI conference papers |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02579 |