A Human-Computer Interaction Perspective to Drive Change towards Sustainable Future (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 23092)

Abstract

In our everyday lives, people are constrained by routines, social expectation, and the soft and hard technologies and infrastructures that shape this. The way they approach things, think about things, are expected to be, and are governed is rarely questioned in terms of the finite nature of resources nor impacts of this. The challenge is to change the way people think and behave, and to reshape these very tools and expectations. However, change is exhausting, challenging, confronting, and requires support.
Technology can provide such a support, BUT it would be naïve to assume that this change will happen without friction, without dispute, and without constraints. But on the other hand, most of the conveniences that need to be changed are predicated on a false and falacious assumption that we can go as much, as fast, as high, and as pleasantly as we want without any regard for others. In this workshop, we explored how human computer interaction can facilitate, require, or even enforce the path we should take to use less, do slower, or act differently. In this Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop we discussed the contribution that HCI can make in light of the SDGs and what role HCI must play in informing and changing the behavior of individuals and collectives.