Entangled Amid Misaligned Seams: Limitations to Technology-Mediated Care for Repairing Infrastructural Breakdowns in a Youth Empowerment Program
Name
3686896.pdf
Size
643.9 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
27d3d8a20db2271e5c374c93ebc032e3
Author(s)
Choi, Adrian
Pfohl, Grace
D'Ignazio, Catherine
Foucault Welles, Brooke
Parker, Andrea
Date Issued
November 8, 2024
Journal
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Publisher
ACM
Citation
Choi, Adrian, Pfohl, Grace, D'Ignazio, Catherine, Foucault Welles, Brooke and Parker, Andrea. 2024. "Entangled Amid Misaligned Seams: Limitations to Technology-Mediated Care for Repairing Infrastructural Breakdowns in a Youth Empowerment Program." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 8 (CSCW2).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic broke down the human infrastructure of many community-based programs, disrupting in-person care services for low-resourced families. Yet, minimal work has explored how actors repair these breakdowns and how other infrastructures may interfere with repairs in such contexts. Interviewing adolescents and adults affiliated with a youth empowerment program, we used the pandemic to examine how a human infrastructure that previously facilitated a sense of community broke down and how members attempted to repair this infrastructure. While organized activities, resources, and interpersonal interactions aligned to facilitate in-person care that established a sense of community, incorporating information and communication technologies to align a sociotechnical infrastructure during social restrictions could not overcome multiple constraints imposed by other infrastructures that limited this sense of community. We discuss limitations to care and aligning together multiple disjointed infrastructures, calling for CSCW researchers to critically consider asset-based design as a methodology that might help sustain a community's well-being.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3686896
