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With this paper we would like to join the conversation around CSCW and social theory by reflecting upon the role of contemporary critical theory in further expanding CSCW research, both theoretically and empirically. Our arguments are based on the development of an EU-funded project, called PIE News, which aims to design a digital platform to help contrasting conditions of poverty, lack of income and unemployment in Europe. The intellectual background of the project draws upon contemporary critical theory, Autonomous Marxism in particular. In claiming that theories make reality, not only describe it, we discuss how critical theory and forms of contemporary participatory design can be aligned in the light of contemporary digital capitalism. We outline a few questions for CSCW, showing how the achievements of the field so far can benefit from a renewed attention to political economy, in order to fit in the current social context in a progressive way.

This paper contributes to the discourse on HCI and political economy, further developing theoretical concepts of strategies and tactics by drawing on the original work of French scholar Michel de Certeau. Strategies and tactics are developed and used as a lens to reflect and understand decisions made throughout an IT design process oriented toward infrastructuring social collaboration among people who are struggling financially. We demonstrate this by presenting the case of Commonfare, an EU funded project, and we focus, in particular, on the relationships between specific research and pilot project consortium partners. We explore decisions and actions that take place over four months between two milestones of the project – the first platform release, and a general assembly.

Participatory Design (PD) has recently seen efforts to reinvigorate its political capacity, including reflections on the relations between its practices and institutions and a renewed political agenda in the contemporary stage of capitalism, such as the one of nourishing the common. This paper addresses both of these directions, questioning how a renewed political agenda of PD intersects the processes of institutioning in which PD itself takes part. To do that, we refer to an European-funded project called Commonfare, aimed at designing a digital platform fostering the emergence of a new economic model in the domain of the institutions of the welfare state. We conclude by discussing how a PD political agenda based on the critique of the current forms of capitalism aligns with or challenges existing institutional frames, supporting the emergence of new institutions.

As CSCW and HCI researchers are increasingly interested in supporting the needs of underserved communities, the European Union is unfortunately becoming an interesting case in point given the persistent growth of huge social problems such as poverty, low income, unemployment, precarious jobs, and large migratory flows from non-Western countries. In this paper we present a Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation (CAPS) project called 'PIE News', which aims to design a digital platform that will supplement the existing public measures contrasting conditions of poverty, lack of income and unemployment in Europe by adopting a public design approach. We provide a description of actors, methods, and goals of the project, and we reflect over two methodological and epistemological challenges that affect HCI research on and for underserved communities.

We present empirical examples of approaches to communication taken by the consortium of a large scale participatory design project in Europe, framed in terms of organisational communication in an infrastructuring process. The examples are understood generally in terms of the goal of fostering internal communication practices away from hierarchical relationships, which align with the political goals of participatory design and of the project. More specifically they are also understood in the framework of strategies and tactics in terms of actions taken within an infrastructuring process. The examples relate to the role of the words consortium partners use to describe and talk about the project across different disciplines; the metaphors we construct to assist the design, development and communication; and the use of tags to assist filtering and management of mailing lists.

This contribution investigates practices, imaginaries and representations delivered by The House of Women Lucha y Siesta, a women's shelter and political collective located in Rome. Based on an in-depth interview with three activists of the House, the contribution explores their perceptions and experiences concerning three thematic areas: the construction of narrative and communication strategies and their dissemination across social networking platforms; the choice of languages and aesthetics and their relationship with the collective imaginary; the role of digital platforms in processes of political participation.

This contribution investigates practices, imaginaries and representations delivered by The House of Women Lucha y Siesta, a women's shelter and political collective located in Rome. Based on an in-depth interview with three activists of the House, the contribution explores their perceptions and experiences concerning three thematic areas: the construction of narrative and communication strategies and their dissemination across social networking platforms; the choice of languages and aesthetics and their relationship with the collective imaginary; the role of digital platforms in processes of political participation.

Participatory Design (PD) has recently seen efforts to reinvigorate its political capacity, including reflections on the relations between its practices and institutions and a renewed political agenda in the contemporary stage of capitalism, such as the one of nourishing the common. This paper addresses both of these directions, questioning how a renewed political agenda of PD intersects the processes of institutioning in which PD itself takes part. To do that, we refer to an European-funded project called Commonfare, aimed at designing a digital platform fostering the emergence of a new economic model in the domain of the institutions of the welfare state. We conclude by discussing how a PD political agenda based on the critique of the current forms of capitalism aligns with or challenges existing institutional frames, supporting the emergence of new institutions.Full text at ACM

Recently, HCI scholars have started questioning the relationship between computing and political economy, with both general analyses of such relationships, and specific design cases describing design interventions. This paper contributes to this stream of reflections, and argues that IT designers and HCI scholars can critically engage with the contemporary phase of capitalism by infrastructuring the emergence of new institutional forms of autonomous social collaboration through IT projects. More specifically, we discuss strategies and tactics that are available for IT designers embracing an activist agenda while infrastructuring autonomous social collaborations. We draw on empirical data from an H2020 EU funded project -- Commonfare -- that seeks to foster the emergence of alternative forms of welfare provision rooted in social collaboration. In this context, we discuss how the necessary multiple relations that unfold in a project with such ambitions shape both the language and the technologies of the project itself.

This paper contributes to the discourse on HCI and political economy, further developing theoretical concepts of strategies and tactics by drawing on the original work of French scholar Michel de Certeau. Strategies and tactics are developed and used as a lens to reflect and understand decisions made throughout an IT design process oriented toward infrastructuring social collaboration among people who are struggling financially. We demonstrate this by presenting the case of Commonfare, an EU funded project, and we focus, in particular, on the relationships between specific research and pilot project consortium partners. We explore decisions and actions that take place over four months between two milestones of the project - the first platform release, and a general assembly.

The paper concerns the development of digitally-mediated technologies that value social cooperation as a common good rather than as a source of revenue and accumulation. The paper discusses the activities that shaped a European participatory design project which aims to develop a digital space that promotes and facilitates the 'Commonfare', a complementary approach to social welfare. The paper provides and discusses concrete examples of design artifacts to address a key question about the role of co- and participatory design in developing hybrid spaces that nurture sharing and autonomous cooperation: how can co-design practices promote alternatives to the commodification of digitally-mediated cooperation? The paper argues for a need to focus on relational, social, political and ethical values, and highlights the potential power of co- and participatory design processes to achieve this. In summary, the paper proposes that only by re-asserting the centrality of shared values and capacities, rather than individual needs or problems, co-design can reposition itself thereby encouraging autonomous cooperation.

The paper concerns the development of digitally-mediated technologies that value social cooperation as a common good rather than as a source of revenue and accumulation. The paper discusses the activities that shaped a European participatory design project which aims to develop a digital space that promotes and facilitates the 'Commonfare', a complementary approach to social welfare. The paper provides and discusses concrete examples of design artifacts to address a key question about the role of co- and participatory design in developing hybrid spaces that nurture sharing and autonomous cooperation: how can co-design practices promote alternatives to the commodification of digitally-mediated cooperation? The paper argues for a need to focus on relational, social, political and ethical values, and highlights the potential power of co- and participatory design processes to achieve this. In summary, the paper proposes that only by re-asserting the centrality of shared values and capacities, rather than individual needs or problems, co-design can reposition itself thereby encouraging autonomous cooperation.

This paper concerns the development of digitally-mediated technologies that value social cooperation as a common good rather than as a source of revenue and accumulation. The paper discusses the activities that shaped a European participatory design project which aims to develop a digital space that promotes and facilitates the 'Commonfare', a complementary approach to social welfare. The paper provides and discusses concrete examples of design artifacts to address a key question about the role of co- and participatory design in developing hybrid spaces that nurture sharing and autonomous cooperation: how can co-design practices promote alternatives to the commodification of digitally-mediated cooperation? The paper argues for a need to focus on relational, social, political and ethical values, and highlights the potential power of co- and participatory design processes to achieve this. In summary, the paper proposes that only by re-asserting the centrality of shared values and capacities, rather than individual needs or problems, co-design can reposition itself thereby encouraging autonomous cooperation.