Frameworking for a Community-led Feminist Ethics

Abstract

This paper introduces a relational perspective on ethics within the context of Feminist Digital Civics and community-led design. Ethics work in HCI has primarily focused on prescriptive machine ethics and bioethics principles rather than people. In response, we advocate for a community-led, processual approach to ethics, acknowledging power dynamics and local contexts. We thus propose a multidimensional adaptive model for ethics in HCI design, integrating an intersectional feminist ethical lens. This framework embraces feminist epistemologies, methods, and methodologies, fostering a reflexive practice. By weaving together situated knowledges, standpoint theory, intersectionality, participatory methods, and care ethics, our approach offers a holistic foundation for ethics in HCI, aiming to advance community-led practices and enrich the discourse surrounding ethics within this field.