The recognition that technology is not neutral has deep roots in science and technology studies. Building on this foundation, HCI work has increasingly acknowledged that technology design and research are based on embedded values and are not neutral processes.
Following this development, our workshop frames political research in HCI at the level of ideologies. Ideologies are foundational belief systems that shape how groups perceive and interact with the world. Ideologies inform more specific group attitudes and can shape how individual members of the group interpret events, construct opinions, and engage in social practices and discourse. Ideologies are not merely isolated belief systems; through processes of group identification and differentiation, they section society.
Our workshop brings ideologies in HCI to the fore. This is not to say that the theme would have been absent on the field: HCI has engaged with ideologies by criticizing hegemonic perspectives, which are shared by a large fraction of society and therefore create widely accepted norms, like capitalism, individualism or modernism. Differing ideological stances are also reflected in methodological tensions: for example, feminist methodology rejects the notion of objective truth in science and posits that science is shaped by social values. This creates tension with the influence of the natural sciences on computer science and, consequently, HCI. In design, ideologies are present in the differing worldviews of stakeholders. Yet, until now, examples like these have not been examined under a common umbrella. This is precisely what our workshop aims to change.
We approach ideologies as an object of study and observation and organize a workshop to:
To work toward these aims, our collaborative endeavor will initiate discussion on:
Identifying and curating the ideological forces, tensions, and dilemmas in HCI will foster productive discussion for the evolution of the field and make our political work more transparent.
Read more in our Extended Abstract preprint: CHI26_CHIdeology_Preprint.pdf
We invite up to 20 scholars at any career stage to submit a 2–3 page position paper (ACM single-column or DIS2026 pictorial format) engaging with any of the following:
Nonverbal or pictorial contributions are welcome, as submissions will serve as materials for the workshop activities. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, originality, and potential to advance the conversation. Selection will balance diversity in background, seniority, geography, and perspective, if oversubscribed. Selected contributions will be published on arXiv with the author’s consent. One author per submission must attend in person at the conference, or at least during the dedicated online event before the conference (TBD).
Submission should be in PDF format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB. Acceptance notifications will be sent at the latest on 25th February.
| ACM Single Column: Word | LaTeX | Overleaf |
| DIS 2026 Pictorials: InDesign | Word | PowerPoint |
Questions? Please contact us vie organizers [at] ideologies.digital.
Felix Anand Epp is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Design at Aalto University and the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. Using design practice and in-situ research, he investigates how interactive technologies and sociotechnical imaginaries shape social life.
Matti Nelimarkka is a university lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki and an affiliated researcher at Aalto University’s Department of Computer Science. His work has focused on the intersection of politics and technology, both examining the construction of technology and the use of technology for political communication.
Jesse Haapoja is a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University’s Department of Computer Sciences and a visiting researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki. His work has focused on social studies of algorithmic systems, with a recent interest in moral discourse and its relationship with ideologies on social media platforms and their users.
Pedro Ferreira is an Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. His work focuses on examining the discourses surrounding the design and deployment of technologies in different contexts, specifically the ways they construct users, tasks and goals, often in tension with stated intentions.
Os Keyes is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Their work frequently explores the political and ideological underpinnings of computing technologies, with a focus on questions of gender, disability and race.
Shaowen Bardzell is a Professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. A common thread throughout her work is the exploration of the contributions of feminism, design, and social science to support the role of technology in social change.