research-article

Computational and cognitive infrastructures of stigma: empowering identity in social computing and gaming

Author:

D. Fox HarrellAuthors Info & Claims

C&C '09: Proceedings of the seventh ACM conference on Creativity and cognition

Pages 49 - 58

https://doi.org/10.1145/1640233.1640244

Published: 26 October 2009 Publication History

Abstract

Computing technologies such as games, social networking sites, and virtual environments often reproduce forms of social stigma encountered in everyday real life, as well as introducing new forms of stigma. When users represent themselves via avatars, characters, and profiles, norms for behavior and group affiliations are established that may introduce prejudices, stereotypes, and associated social ills found in the real world. To empower users against these effects, this paper presents technologies designed to: (1) provide dynamic means of identity representation while avoiding stigmatizing norms, and (2) provide for critical reflection on stigmatizing identity infrastructures found in other systems. The theory and technologies developed with these aims is encapsulated under the rubric of the Advanced Identity Representation (AIR) Project that initiated in the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory (ICE Lab; D. Fox Harrell, Director) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This work has a basis in the cognitive science foundations of categorization and metaphor-based bias, and study of social classification infrastructures from sociology of science. Using this theoretical framework, this paper provides a model to reveal a set of inadequacies of many current identity infrastructures in social computing and gaming systems for supporting the needs of people in marginalized categories. As results, several social networking systems and games developed in the ICE Lab to empower users in creating computational identities and/or critiquing the phenomenon of stigma in these applications are presented.

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Index Terms

Computational and cognitive infrastructures of stigma: empowering identity in social computing and gaming
1. Applied computing
  1. Arts and humanities
2. Social and professional topics

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cover image ACM Conferences

C&C '09: Proceedings of the seventh ACM conference on Creativity and cognition

October 2009

520 pages

ISBN:9781605588650

DOI:10.1145/1640233

General Chair:
Nick Bryan-Kinns
Queen Mary University of London, UK
,
Program Chairs:
Mark D. Gross
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
,
Hilary Johnson
University of Bath, UK
,
Jack Ox
University of New Mexico, USA
,
Ron Wakkary
Simon Fraser University, Surrey, Canada

Copyright © 2009 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 26 October 2009

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C&C '09: Creativity and Cognition 2009

October 26 - 30, 2009

California, Berkeley, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 108 of 371 submissions, 29%

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https://doi.org/10.37679/trta.1143010
Rajko J(2022)Geocultural Precarities in Canonizing Computing Research Involving DanceProceedings of the 8th International Conference on Movement and Computing10.1145/3537972.3537988(1-14)Online publication date: 22-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3537972.3537988
Srujan Raju KJagtap VKulkarni PVaraprasad Rao M(2022)Gameplay Cognitive Decision Support Using Statistical and Non-statistical Parametric FusionComputer Communication, Networking and IoT10.1007/978-981-19-1976-3_24(187-193)Online publication date: 5-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1976-3_24
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