A presentation given at the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference 2011, in Boulder, Co. Get in touch if you are interested in reading the paper. Abstract: People employ creative ways to overcome the challenges of daily life. The construct of agency is a productive area of inquiry when considering how people respond to these challenges. Exploring moments of agency provides an embodied understanding of people’s motivations and helps reveal the structural and technological barriers they encounter every day. We propose a framework of agency and three corresponding categories: resourcefulness, resilience, and powerlessness. This framework was developed while working with data from two design ethnographies: one in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and the other in Seattle, Washington.

1. SHINING A LIGHT ON AGENCY Examining responses to resource constraints to uncover opportunities for design Emma Rose, PhD & Robert Racadio Anthro-Tech, Inc./University of Washington

2. The users of technology and their contexts are becoming more diverse

3. We need to develop approaches to help us better understandanddesignfor these users and contexts

4. Structuration theory looks at the dynamic interplay between agency and structure

5. Actors work together or individually to get by or get ahead

6. ! ? Actors act reflexively and purposefully

7. Structure refers to the organizing aspects of society

8. Norms Rules Institutions Structure refers to the organizing aspects of society

9. Actors can act according or against structural constraints. They can inform and modify structure through their everyday practice.

10. Seattle and Bishkek

11. Seattle and Bishkek Design ethnography Group interviews Social mapping Design ethnography Group interviews Video diaries

12. Agency is the ability to act or act otherwise

13. Agency is the ability to act or act otherwise Powerlessness Resiliency Resourcefulness

14. Resourcefulness Deploying expertise to resolvestructural constraints inways that are sanctioned and productive

15. Resiliency Manipulatingstructures or resources to overcomebarriers, inunsanctionedor unanticipated ways

16. Powerlessness Theinabilitytoovercome structural constraints

17. Use the framework of agency to : structurefield data across sites : critiqueexisting designs : design foragency

18. Look fortensions between agency and structure to reveal systemic inequities andopportunities fordesign

19. Emma Rose, PhD emmarose@anthro-tech.com Robert Racadio racadio@uw.edu Thanks!Part of this research was funded by National Science Foundation awards #0219350 and #0326101