Eight grand challenges for value sensitive design from the 2016 Lorentz workshop

Batya Friedman,Catholijn Jonker,Nick Logler,Maaike Harbers,David G. Hendry,Jeroen van den Hoven

doi:10.1007/s10676-021-09586-y

Abstract

In this article, we report on eight grand challenges for value sensitive design, which were developed at a one-week workshop, Value Sensitive Design: Charting the Next Decade, Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, November 14–18, 2016. A grand challenge is a substantial problem, opportunity, or question that motives sustained research and design activity. The eight grand challenges are: (1) Accounting for Power, (2) Evaluating Value Sensitive Design, (3) Framing and Prioritizing Values, (4) Professional and Industry Appropriation, (5) Tech policy, (6) Values and Human Emotions, (7) Value Sensitive Design and Intelligent Algorithms, and (8) Value Tensions. Each grand challenge consists of a discussion of its importance and a set of tractable key questions.

Highlights

For over one hundred years, grand challenges have successfully been used to stimulate sustained interest in fields of science and technology (Omenn 2006)
In this article we report on the set of grand challenges that were developed at a 1-week workshop, Value Sensitive Design: Charting the Decade, Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, November 14–18, 2016, organized by the special issue editors
Information policy has the potential to impact politics and power relationships, and value sensitive design researchers engaging with and informing policy need to critically examine and evaluate how questions and considerations of power are implicated in their work

Summary

Introduction

For over one hundred years, grand challenges have successfully been used to stimulate sustained interest in fields of science and technology (Omenn 2006). At the end of the Day 3, a preliminary list of 13 topics for grand challenges had been identified These included: frameworks for eliciting, defining and prioritizing values; framing and addressing value tensions; stakeholders; disentangling the literature; value sensitive design and practice; value sensitive design pedagogy; evaluation and critique; value sensitive design and tech policy; application areas; accounting for power; cultural sensitivity; value sensitive design and intelligent algorithms; values and emotions. Information policy has the potential to impact politics and power relationships, and value sensitive design researchers engaging with and informing policy need to critically examine and evaluate how questions and considerations of power are implicated in their work. The value sensitive design community would be well-served by engaging with policy more broadly including integrating scholarship and ideas from other policy-related fields (e.g., law, regulation, political science), studying policymaking processes and/or collaborating with policymakers, publishing research in policyoriented outlets, and evaluating the impact of value sensitive design research on policy outcomes

Methods for value sensitive policy

Practices and methods