New book (soon to be published): "Critical Theory and Interaction Design"

I am very honored and happy to have been involved in a new edited book soon to be published by the MIT Press. The book "Critical Theory and Interaction Design" is edited by Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell and Mark Blythe. Each chapter consists of a classic text from critical theory with a commentary from a scholar in the field of HCI. 

I had personally the opportunity and pleasure of commenting on a chapter from Herbert Marcuse's book "One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society". This is a book that I have read many times and that has influenced my thinking in many ways.

I believe this new book to be an invaluable resource for graduate students in the field of HCI but also broader, such as STS, philosophy of technology, sociology, and more.

Here is the presentation from MIT Press.

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Critical Theory and Interaction Design

Edited by Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell and Mark Blythe

Overview

Why should interaction designers read critical theory? Critical theory is proving unexpectedly relevant to media and technology studies. The editors of this volume argue that reading critical theory—understood in the broadest sense, including but not limited to the Frankfurt School—can help designers do what they want to do; can teach wisdom itself; can provoke; and can introduce new ways of seeing. They illustrate their argument by presenting classic texts by thinkers in critical theory from Althusser to Žižek alongside essays in which leaders in interaction design and HCI describe the influence of the text on their work. For example, one contributor considers the relevance Umberto Eco’s “Openness, Information, Communication” to digital content; another reads Walter Benjamin’s “The Author as Producer” in terms of interface designers; and another reflects on the implications of Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble for interaction design. The editors offer a substantive introduction that traces the various strands of critical theory.

Taken together, the essays show how critical theory and interaction design can inform each other, and how interaction design, drawing on critical theory, might contribute to our deepest needs for connection, competency, self-esteem, and wellbeing.

ContributorsJeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, Olav W. Bertelsen, Alan F. Blackwell, Mark Blythe, Kirsten Boehner, John Bowers, Gilbert Cockton, Carl DiSalvo, Paul Dourish, Melanie Feinberg, Beki Grinter, Hrönn Brynjarsdóttir Holmer, Jofish Kaye, Ann Light, John McCarthy, Søren Bro Pold, Phoebe Sengers, Erik Stolterman, Kaiton Williams., Peter Wright

Classic textsLouis Althusser, Aristotle, Roland Barthes, Seyla Benhabib, Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Arthur Danto, Terry Eagleton, Umberto Eco, Michel Foucault, Wolfgang Iser, Alan Kaprow, Søren Kierkegaard, Bruno Latour, Herbert Marcuse, Edward Said, James C. Scott, Slavoj Žižek