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Moving Towards Epistemic Autonomy: A Paradigm Shift for Centering Participant Knowledge

Leah Hope Ajmani, Talia Bhatt, Michael Ann Devito

TL;DR

The paper tackles epistemic injustice in HCI by defining epistemic autonomy as the capacity to govern how individuals know themselves and are known to others, anchored in transfeminist theory. It proposes a paradigm shift and two method variants—scaffolded autoethnography and member-checked asynchronous remote communities—to center participant knowledge and safety. Through six stories across online communities and HCI research practice, the authors illustrate testimonial and hermeneutical injustices and present nine commitments spanning ontology, epistemology, and methodology. The work argues that adopting epistemic autonomy can reorient CHI toward justice-driven research, while remaining compatible with existing paradigms and practices, and provides concrete guidance for implementation and future work.

Abstract

Justice, epistemology, and marginalization are rich areas of study in HCI. And yet, we repeatedly find platforms and algorithms that push communities further into the margins. In this paper, we propose epistemic autonomy -- one's ability to govern knowledge about themselves -- as a necessary HCI paradigm for working with marginalized communities. We establish epistemic autonomy by applying the transfeminine principle of autonomy to the problem of epistemic injustice. To articulate the harm of violating one's epistemic autonomy, we present six stories from two trans women: (1) a transfem online administrator and (2) a transfem researcher. We then synthesize our definition of epistemic autonomy in research into a research paradigm. Finally, we present two variants of common HCI methods, autoethnography and asynchronous remote communities, that stem from these beliefs. We discuss how CHI is uniquely situated to champion this paradigm and, thereby, the epistemic autonomy of our research participants.

Moving Towards Epistemic Autonomy: A Paradigm Shift for Centering Participant Knowledge

TL;DR

The paper tackles epistemic injustice in HCI by defining epistemic autonomy as the capacity to govern how individuals know themselves and are known to others, anchored in transfeminist theory. It proposes a paradigm shift and two method variants—scaffolded autoethnography and member-checked asynchronous remote communities—to center participant knowledge and safety. Through six stories across online communities and HCI research practice, the authors illustrate testimonial and hermeneutical injustices and present nine commitments spanning ontology, epistemology, and methodology. The work argues that adopting epistemic autonomy can reorient CHI toward justice-driven research, while remaining compatible with existing paradigms and practices, and provides concrete guidance for implementation and future work.

Abstract

Justice, epistemology, and marginalization are rich areas of study in HCI. And yet, we repeatedly find platforms and algorithms that push communities further into the margins. In this paper, we propose epistemic autonomy -- one's ability to govern knowledge about themselves -- as a necessary HCI paradigm for working with marginalized communities. We establish epistemic autonomy by applying the transfeminine principle of autonomy to the problem of epistemic injustice. To articulate the harm of violating one's epistemic autonomy, we present six stories from two trans women: (1) a transfem online administrator and (2) a transfem researcher. We then synthesize our definition of epistemic autonomy in research into a research paradigm. Finally, we present two variants of common HCI methods, autoethnography and asynchronous remote communities, that stem from these beliefs. We discuss how CHI is uniquely situated to champion this paradigm and, thereby, the epistemic autonomy of our research participants.
Paper Structure (47 sections, 3 figures)

This paper contains 47 sections, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Epistemic Injustice
  4. Autonomy and Transfeminism
  5. Research Paradigms
  6. Establishing Epistemic Autonomy in Research
  7. Testimonial Autonomy
  8. Hermeneutical Autonomy
  9. Related Efforts in HCI
  10. Researcher Positionality
  11. Stories and Violations of Epistemic Autonomy
  12. Epistemic Autonomy in Online Communities: Intersecting Gender and Race
  13. Story 1. Intracommunity Epistemic Injustice on Facebook
  14. Story 2. Weaponized Credibility in a Slack Community
  15. Story 3. Attack on a Self-Owned Discord Server
  16. ...and 32 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Summary of commitments for affording epistemic autonomy to participants in HCI research.
  • Figure 2: Steps and associated documents for scaffolded autoethnography (SAE). Inspired by collaborative autoethnography, SAE involves facilitating participants to be autoethnographers by scaffolding their materials and facilitating collaborative analysis.
  • Figure 3: Steps and associated documents for member checked ARCs. Building on the promise of ARCs to provide private spaces, various activities, and rich analysis (in grey), member-checked ARCs involve a cyclical process of member-checking preliminary analyses (in color).