Between Solutionism and Relevance: Exploring Environmental Justice and Community Biology Laboratory Technology Praxis

Abstract

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates know the of harms caused by inequality in the distribution of pollution, toxins, and other products of industrial activity. They have a keen understanding of developments in science and technology, some which have led to these injustices and others which may ameliorate harms. Concurrently, community biology laboratories bring together professionals and non-professionals with shared interests and curiosity regarding science and technology. This dissertation explores how human-centered computing might develop a praxis based in community lab culture supporting and supported by EJ. Through interviews with EJ advocates based in North America and observant participation in Baltimore-based EJ organizing activities, we identified a desire for community-led and anti-solutionist digital technology. This knowledge is brought to bear on a two-year ethnographic study of a community lab, the Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS), including interviews with leaders of five community labs in the United States. This ethnographic work, with emphasis on youth participation in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition and on bioart, informs an understanding of the foundational principles and practices of community labs. Crossing these two studies, the concept of liminality is used to examine implications for transdisciplinary human-computer interaction (HCI) research, such as community-led investigations intersecting with EJ, biotechnology, and sustainable development. Liminal experience may work as a means through which individuals and communities in more-than-human configurations can move between hegemonic- and community value-driven states. This dissertation contributes to human-centered computing as it is concerned with sustainability, design justice, and the incorporation of biotechnology and living organisms into design. It (1) identifies a vision for digital technology design that supports EJ organizing efforts as one that prioritizes community-led and anti-solutionist approaches, and identifies liminality as a naturally occurring and designed resource for creative and community-led transformation; (2) describes the foundations and practices of community labs and how these can be co-supportive with EJ organizing by promoting cultural relevance; and (3) raises the possibility of shared curiosity as a basis for community engagement and public participation in science and technology. These contribute a new way to structure what it means to engage community in technology design and evaluation, demonstrating productive ways that non-expert communities can form transdisciplinary coalitions to question, push back, and subvert existing structures of power.