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A Systematic Literature Review of Infrastructure Studies in SIGCHI

Yao Lyu, Jie Cai, John M. Carroll

TL;DR

This systematic review maps infrastructure studies within SIGCHI (2006–2024), revealing three core themes: growing/sustaining infrastructure, appropriating infrastructure to support collaboration and participation, and coping with infrastructure through constraints and failures. Grounded in Star’s socio-technical framework, the study emphasizes informal infrastructural activities and problematization, arguing for ethnographic and participatory design approaches to address bias and exclusion. Methodologically, it combines a transparent data-collection pipeline with inductive thematic analysis to produce a corpus of 190 primary studies, predominantly from CSCW and CHI, and largely qualitative in character. The work underscores the social dimensions of infrastructure, the politics of access, and the need for flexible, inclusive infrastructures in HCI practice and scholarship. Overall, it provides epistemological and methodological guidance for studying infrastructure in HCI and highlights opportunities to broaden participation and accountability in infrastructural design.

Abstract

Infrastructure is an indispensable part of human life. Over the past decades, the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community has paid increasing attention to human interactions with infrastructure. In this paper, we conducted a systematic literature review on infrastructure studies in SIGCHI, one of the most influential communities in HCI. We collected a total of 190 primary studies, covering works published between 2006 and 2024. Most of these studies are inspired by Susan Leigh Star's notion of infrastructure. We identify three major themes in infrastructure studies: growing infrastructure, appropriating infrastructure, and coping with infrastructure. Our review highlights a prevailing trend in SIGCHI's infrastructure research: a focus on informal infrastructural activities across various sociotechnical contexts. In particular, we examine studies that problematize infrastructure and alert the HCI community to its potentially harmful aspects.

A Systematic Literature Review of Infrastructure Studies in SIGCHI

TL;DR

This systematic review maps infrastructure studies within SIGCHI (2006–2024), revealing three core themes: growing/sustaining infrastructure, appropriating infrastructure to support collaboration and participation, and coping with infrastructure through constraints and failures. Grounded in Star’s socio-technical framework, the study emphasizes informal infrastructural activities and problematization, arguing for ethnographic and participatory design approaches to address bias and exclusion. Methodologically, it combines a transparent data-collection pipeline with inductive thematic analysis to produce a corpus of 190 primary studies, predominantly from CSCW and CHI, and largely qualitative in character. The work underscores the social dimensions of infrastructure, the politics of access, and the need for flexible, inclusive infrastructures in HCI practice and scholarship. Overall, it provides epistemological and methodological guidance for studying infrastructure in HCI and highlights opportunities to broaden participation and accountability in infrastructural design.

Abstract

Infrastructure is an indispensable part of human life. Over the past decades, the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community has paid increasing attention to human interactions with infrastructure. In this paper, we conducted a systematic literature review on infrastructure studies in SIGCHI, one of the most influential communities in HCI. We collected a total of 190 primary studies, covering works published between 2006 and 2024. Most of these studies are inspired by Susan Leigh Star's notion of infrastructure. We identify three major themes in infrastructure studies: growing infrastructure, appropriating infrastructure, and coping with infrastructure. Our review highlights a prevailing trend in SIGCHI's infrastructure research: a focus on informal infrastructural activities across various sociotechnical contexts. In particular, we examine studies that problematize infrastructure and alert the HCI community to its potentially harmful aspects.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 21 sections, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methodology
  3. Data Collection
  4. Data Analysis
  5. Descriptive Statistics
  6. Findings
  7. Growing Infrastructure
  8. Initiating the Development
  9. Managing Endurance
  10. Appropriating Infrastructure
  11. Comprehending Collaboration
  12. Promoting Participation
  13. Coping with Infrastructure
  14. Encountering Constraints
  15. Resolving Failures
  16. ...and 6 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: The flowchart of the data collection process.
  • Figure 2: The flowchart of the data collection process.
  • Figure 3: Publication venues of infrastructure studies in SIGCHI (X-axis for year, Y-axis for number of studies).