Proceedings of CHIdeology 2026: CHI Workshop on Disentangling the fragmented politics, values and imaginaries of Human-Computer Interaction through ideologies

A collective of HCI and social computing researchers, including Felix Anand Epp, Matti Nelimarkka, and Os Keyes, have formally published the proceedings for 'CHIdeology 2026.' This marks the inaugural workshop of its kind at the prestigious ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Its core mission is to 'disentangle' the often-unexamined political assumptions, cultural values, and future visions ('imaginaries') that fundamentally guide how interactive systems are conceived and built. The workshop positions 'ideology' not as a slur but as a necessary analytical lens, arguing that all design carries implicit worldviews that influence everything from user interface metaphors to algorithmic fairness.

The workshop, held in Barcelona, signifies a growing movement within technical fields to confront the non-neutrality of technology. By creating a dedicated forum at CHI—the field's top venue—the organizers are pushing for ideology to become a standard category of analysis alongside usability and efficiency. This involves developing shared vocabularies and methods to critically examine how values like neoliberalism, colonialism, or specific political philosophies are baked into research questions, design prototypes, and evaluation metrics. The goal is to move from fragmented, individual critiques toward a more systematic understanding of how HCI as a discipline perpetuates or challenges dominant social structures through its artifacts and practices.