Rethinking the Datafied Human: Critical Data Literacy in HCI

Abstract

This workshop explores how humans are represented and governed through data-intensive and AI-mediated systems, and what this means for HCI research and design. While HCI increasingly emphasizes human-centred perspectives, many digital systems still rely on assumptions of users as stable and fully legible subjects. Drawing on feminist and critical approaches to data, the workshop examines how data practices influence participation, visibility, and experiences of exclusion, while also highlighting the frictions and negotiations that emerge when lived realities exceed system categories. Rather than treating data literacy as technical competence alone, the workshop approaches critical data literacy as a situated and relational practice involving interpretation, negotiation, and ethical judgement. Through case exchanges, collective mapping, and speculative design activities, participants will explore how HCI might better support more plural and context-sensitive approaches to human representation in increasingly datafied societies.