Para Cima y Pa’ Abajo: Building Bridges Between HCI Research in Latin America and in the Global North

Document Title

Para Cima y Pa’ Abajo: Building Bridges Between HCI Research in Latin America and in the Global North

Document Information

• Topic Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research practices and collaborations between Latin America and the Global North
• Keywords: HCI, Latin America, development, social justice, cross-cultural comparison, technology design, Global South and North

Research Background and Issues

• Problems or Challenges:
  • Latin America (LATAM) is underrepresented and under-participated in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research, with low international visibility; only 0.5%-1.2% of attendees at top-tier HCI conferences come from LATAM.
  • Current initiatives aimed at increasing the visibility of Latin American HCI research lack a systematic understanding of the methods, drivers, and challenges involved in these practices.
• Significance of the Problem:
  • Latin America possesses rich cultural, social, and ecological resources (e.g., indigenous knowledge and environmental perspectives) that are critical for understanding technology design and user experience.
  • Analyzing the Latin American HCI landscape and its interactions with the Global North can help shape a pluriverse model of HCI development.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  • Global HCI has been striving for diversification, but a binary divide between "mainstream" and "marginal" persists, with mainstream HCI dominated by Global North research paradigms and insufficient representation of other regions.
  • Existing studies (e.g., successful cases in African HCI) offer pathways to rethinking HCI practices from a localist perspective, but systematic research on Latin America remains scarce.

Solutions

• Methods and Solutions:
  • A mixed-methods approach was employed, including an online survey (66 respondents) and in-depth semi-structured interviews (19 participants) to explore the following research questions:
    1. What are the practices of HCI in Latin America?
    2. What factors influence HCI practices in Latin America?
    3. What challenges do HCI researchers face in Latin America?
  • A research roadmap was proposed to establish connections between different HCI communities.
• Innovations:
  • For the first time, a comprehensive characterization of the HCI field from a Latin American perspective was developed, including drivers, tensions, and professional needs.
  • The concept of "HCI as a pluriverse" was introduced, advocating for shared learning and collaboration between diverse experiences rather than exclusion or competition for paradigm dominance.
• Implementation Steps and Techniques:
  • The survey addressed demographics, research methods, goals, and challenges, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis.
  • Interview analysis employed Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis method, with iterative coding to inductively identify themes in practice.

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:
  • Characteristics of HCI Practices in Latin America:
    • A strong focus on social equity, supporting social change through interdisciplinary and human-centered approaches.
    • Methods and designs often tailored to the specific social, cultural, and economic contexts of Latin America.
  • Drivers and Tensions:
    • "Knowledge flows and returns" within the region: the mobility of Latin American researchers and its impact on local practices.
    • Value conflicts with industry goals of speed and efficiency, prompting academia to emphasize social change.
    • Higher education institutions provide some support, but policy and resource constraints limit international visibility of research outcomes.
  • Skills Needed for Practice:
    • Acting as "translators": mediating interests and knowledge between institutions, communities, and peers.
    • Acting as "connectors": building transnational networks to enhance the visibility of regional research.
    • Acting as "engineers": balancing technical expertise with interdisciplinary backgrounds.
• Comparison with Existing Solutions:
  • Compared to Global North HCI, LATAM principles emphasize social responsibility, respect for local community knowledge and perspectives, and rethinking the applicability of mainstream frameworks.
  • Research from Africa and the Arab world provides benchmarks for LATAM practices, but the latter's unique colonial history and social context offer new insights.
• Experimental and Evaluation Results:
  • Latin American HCI researchers face the following major challenges:
    • Resource scarcity (equipment, funding, technology, etc.).
    • Low adaptability of existing mainstream methods to the LATAM context.
    • Language and publication barriers (the dominance of English as the international academic language).
  • Countermeasures include strengthening network collaborations (local and international) and improving the quality of local HCI education resources.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  • Limitations in sample size and geographic scope: regional variations in HCI practices require further exploration.
  • Insufficient systematic exploration of social justice and decolonization; future research should focus on gender analysis and cross-cultural comparisons.
  • With the rise of research in other Global South regions (e.g., Africa, South Asia), the framework should be expanded to further support diverse practices.