6. Design Strategies | Design for Changing Values

Objective

To develop strategies that can better deal with value change in sociotechnical systems than current value sensitive design approaches (project objective 5)

How Can We Design for Value Change?

Different types of strategies are possible to deal with value change in sociotechnical systems. Anticipatory strategies try to predict or anticipate value changes. Currently most approaches do not try to predict value changes but rather develop for example technomoral scenarios to sketch different possible futures. These can then be the basis for deliberation and sociotechnical systems may be so designed that they can deal with certain anticipated value changes or they may be designed in an attempt to steer value change in a certain direction.

However, not all value changes can be predicted or even anticipated. Not only may values change in other ways than anticipated, also how we perceive and morally evaluate value changes may be hard to anticipate beforehand. This means that anticipatory strategies alone are not enough to deal with value change. Partly we may deal with unanticipated value change by adaptive strategies. Possible adaptive strategies include the redesign of some of the technical parts of the sociotechnical systems, redesign of some of the relevant institutions, adaption of the operation of the sociotechnical system (operational strategies) or changing the behavior of the actors in the system (behavior strategies).

However, often it is better to be prepared for adaption beforehand even if the specific to be expected value changes cannot be anticipated. This may be done by employing a range of proactive design strategies, technical as well as institutional. One might think of design strategies or principles like robustness, flexibility, adaptability, modularization, and the building in of artificial intelligence.

Proactive design strategies may employ the distinction between the intended, embedded and realized values of sociotechnical systems. One may, for example, choose to embed values more loosely into sociotechnical systems so there is more room to realize values that deviate from the embedded values. Alternatively, one may choose also to embed values into the system that are perhaps currently less relevant but are likely to become more important in the future; and this may be done in such a way that there is room to change the realized values later.

Similarly, the distinction between values embedded in technology and institutions may be employed to better deal with future value change. While from the viewpoint of short-term efficacy, it may be undesirable if there are tensions between the technologically and institutionally embedded values, in the longer run this may not always be undesirable in the light of potential value change.

As these examples already show employing proactive design strategies to deal with future value change may bring tradeoffs, or even dilemmas, for example between costs and short-term efficacy on the one hand and the ability to effectively deal with future value change. These trade-offs and dilemmas will be investigated in research line 6. The ultimate aim and result of this research lines will be a new approach for dealing with value change that can be integrated in Value Sensitive Design or Design for Values; such an approach will consist of possible design strategies (technical as well as institutional), but also in insights in the mentioned trade-offs and dilemmas.

Researchers

Anna Melnyk, M.Sc.

PhD Candidate

a.melnyk@tudelft.nl

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/about-the-faculty/departments/values-technology-and-innovation/people/phd-candidates/a-anna-melnyk/

Dr. Amineh Ghorbani

Assistant Professor

a.ghorbani@tudelft.nl

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/about-the-faculty/departments/engineering-systems-and-services/people/assistant-professors/dr-a-amineh-ghorbani/

Dr.ir. Tristan de Wildt

Postdoctoral researcher

T.E.dewildt@tudelft.nl

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/tpm/about-the-faculty/departments/values-technology-and-innovation/people/postdocs/ir-te-tristan-de-wildt/

Related events

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Related Publications

2023

van der Weij, F.; Steinert, S.; van de Poel, I.; Alleblas, J.; Melnyk, A.; de Wildt, T.

Value Change and Technological Design Journal Article

In: IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 25-32, 2023, ISSN: 1937-416X.

Links | BibTeX

2022

de Wildt, Tristan Emile; Schweizer, Vanessa Jine

Exploring value change Journal Article

In: Prometheus, vol. 38, no. 1, 2022.

Links | BibTeX

T. E. Wildt, I. R. van de Poel; Chappin, E. J. L.

Tracing Long-term Value Change in (Energy) Technologies: Opportunities of Probabilistic Topic Models Using Large Data Sets Journal Article

In: Science, Technology, & Human Values, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 429-258, 2022.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

2020

de Reuver, Mark; van Wynsberghe, Aimee; Janssen, Marijn; van de Poel, Ibo

Digital platforms and responsible innovation: expanding value sensitive design to overcome ontological uncertainty Journal Article

In: Ethics and Information Technology, 2020, ISSN: 1572-8439.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{RN3931,

title = {Digital platforms and responsible innovation: expanding value sensitive design to overcome ontological uncertainty},

author = {Mark de Reuver and Aimee van Wynsberghe and Marijn Janssen and Ibo van de Poel},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-020-09537-z},

doi = {10.1007/s10676-020-09537-z},

issn = {1572-8439},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-01-01},

urldate = {2020-01-01},

journal = {Ethics and Information Technology},

abstract = {In this paper, we argue that the characteristics of digital platforms challenge the fundamental assumptions of value sensitive design (VSD). Traditionally, VSD methods assume that we can identify relevant values during the design phase of new technologies. The underlying assumption is that there is only epistemic uncertainty about which values will be impacted by a technology. VSD methods suggest that one can predict which values will be affected by new technologies by increasing knowledge about how values are interpreted or understood in context. In contrast, digital platforms exhibit a novel form of uncertainty, namely, ontological uncertainty: even with full information and overview, it cannot be foreseen what users or developers will do with digital platforms. Hence, predictions about which values are affected might not hold. In this paper, we suggest expanding VSD methods to account for value dynamism resulting from ontological uncertainty. Our expansions involve (1) extending VSD to the entire lifecycle of a platform, (2) broadening VSD through the addition of reflexivity, i.e. second-order learning about what values to aim at, and (3) adding specific tools of moral sandboxing and moral prototyping to enhance such reflexivity. While we illustrate our approach with a short case study about ride-sharing platforms such as Uber, our approach is relevant for other technologies exhibiting ontological uncertainty as well, such as machine learning, robotics and artificial intelligence.},

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pubstate = {published},

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}