Date and time: Thursday 22 January 2026, 13:00-14:00 CET
Speaker: Vasilis Vlachokyriakos, Newcastle University
Title: Beyond Participation in HCI: Technology Design as Social Transformation
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus OR Zoom
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
OR
Host: Rob Comber
Bio: Vasilis Vlachokyriakos is a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Academic and Technology Designer with a background in Computer Science and Computer Security. He currently serves as a Reader of HCI and Digital Civics at Newcastle University, where he is currently the co-lead of the HCI research group, Open Lab. He is also the co-founder of Open Lab Athens, a Social Solidarity Economy research cooperative in Greece.
His work focuses on Community-Engaged Participatory Research, designing and developing digital technologies that foster cooperation, participation, inclusion, and democracy. He works in domains such as place-based civic engagement, participatory local governance, inclusive media, misinformation and content veracity, and user agency. In recent years, his research has focused on exploring and mitigating AI and algorithmically inflicted online harms (e.g. misinformation) particularly working with vulnerable populations and communities.
Over the last decade, he has been an investigator on projects totaling over £10M, securing grants and leading research initiatives in collaboration with technology, media, and international NGO partners, including BBC, Microsoft, IFRC and others. For more information visit his Newcastle staff homepage here or check his publications here.
Vasilis Vlachokyriakos is a Scholar-in-Residence at Digital Futures, hosted by Rob Comber
Abstract: Over the past decade, Human–Computer Interaction has increasingly focused on enabling more inclusive, socially just, and democratic forms of participation in and through technology. This body of work has surfaced the inherently political nature of technology design, embraced Participatory Action Research (PAR) for community inclusion and co-production, and exposed systemic algorithmic and technological injustices. It has also proposed and built alternative socio-technical infrastructures aimed at advancing social justice.
Drawing on several of my past projects—from PAR collaborations with social movements to Research-through-Design engagements with organisations such as the IFRC and BBC—I will reflect on both the achievements and limitations of technology design technology as a mode of social transformation. Building on these reflections, I outline a set of priorities for Community-Engaged Participatory Research in HCI that critically engages with emerging digital technologies and seeks to support more equitable and sustainable futures.
