Clara Crivellaro
Reader
I am Reader in Digital social justice at the School of Computing’s Open Lab, with expertise in Human-Computer Interaction, Digital Civics, Human-Centre Design, Participatory Design, and co-creation.
My research explores how the careful design of new and emergent technologies and socio-technical processes can help support democratic practices and advance equity and social justice in digital societies. Key research areas include, designing for social activism and social justice through co-production of digital services and digital social innovations; data-driven innovations to help explore systemic issues and shape policy; embedding social justice and public values in the design of socio-technical systems. I am also interested in the design of novel tools and processes to support Responsible Research and Innovation in Computing and civic-driven research commissioning processes.
I am currently Co-Investigator on the EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens – Next Stage Digital Economy Centre, where I contribute research on co-creation and algorithmic social justice.
I was the Principal Investigator and Director of Not-Equal, the EPSRC Network+ on Social Justice through the Digital Economy (2018-2022), which fostered 18 cross-disciplinarity and cross-sectoral collaborations exploring Algorithmic Social Justice, equity in digital security and fairness in sharing economies.
I was co-investigator on the co-investigator of the EPSRC Digital Economy Research Center(DERC, 2015-2022); and the H2020 Generative European Urban Commons, gE.CO (2019-2022), which developed socio-technical toolkits to support communing processes.
I am a co-founding member of OLAthens, a cooperative that supports solidarity movements’ social innovations in Greece.
My publications have received ACM best paper awards and honourable mentions for research likely to shape the future of computing. For full list of publications see my Google Scholar profile.
Prior to my current role, I was Senior Research Fellow in Digital Local Democracy and held a post-doc position at Open Lab working on the EPSRC-funded MyPlace project. I obtained my PhD in Computing at Newcastle University. I obtained my PhD in Human-Computer Interaction at Newcastle University. My PhD explored the design of participatory socio-technical processes to support social activism in the everyday politics of place.
Before joining academia, I worked as a Socially Engaged Art practitioner on various initiatives and projects in the creative and cultural sector in the UK and Europe. I have an MA of Arts in Curatorial practice and a BA (hons) in Arts & Design.
Walking and Talking: Place-based Data Collection and Mapping for Participatory Design with Communities
MyCareBudget: a wiki to help carers with Personal Health Budgets
Exploring Experiences of Self-Directed Care Budgets
Creating a community panel to review HCI research proposals
Findings from a Longitudinal Situated Display Deployment
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Place-Based Policymaking and HCI
Let's Talk Parks: creating collaborative spaces to envision and transform public parks services
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Tyne Fresh: Creating food democracy through a local food hub
Relations are more than bytes: Making smart cities with people at heart
Navigating domestic violence service provision
H2020 gE.CO Living Lab: Tools for generating commons
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Not-Equal: Exploring social justice in the digital economy
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Sense Explorers: tools for children to transform the environment
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Spokespeople: helping cyclists record incidents on the road
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OurPlace: an app for learning about people and places
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2025
Co-creating conditions for social justice in digital societies: modes of resistance in HCI collaborative endeavors and evolving socio-technical landscapes
2025 – ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact
2024
Hostile Systems: A Taxonomy of Harms Articulated by Citizens Living with Socio-Economic Deprivation
2024 – CHI '24: Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2023
MyCareBudget: Co-creating a Healthcare Digital Commons with and for Disabled Citizens and their Unpaid Carers
2023 – 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)
Walking and Talking: Place-based Data Collection and Mapping for Participatory Design with Communities
2023 – DIS '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
2022
Exploring Experiences of Self-Directed Care Budgets: Design Implications for Socio-Technical Interventions
2022 – CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22)
Making Community: Lessons learned from researching digital technologies
2022 – Open Lab, Newcastle University
Doctoral Consortium Learning Together
2022 – 35th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2022)
2021
Opening research commissioning to civic participation: creating a community panel to review the social impact of HCI research proposals
2021 – CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Sensing our Streets: Involving Children in Making People-centred Smart Cities
2021 – The Routledge Handbook of Placemaking
Research with a Solidarity Clinic: Design Implications for CSCW Healthcare Service Design
2021 – Computer Supported Cooperative Work
Sustaining a networked community resource: Findings from a longitudinal situated display deployment
2021 – CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Contact Zones: Designing for More-than-Human Food Relations
2021 – Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
2020
Place-Based Policymaking and HCI: Opportunities and Challenges for Technology Design
2020 – CHI '20: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2019
Mapping the Margins: Navigating the Ecologies of Domestic Violence Service Provision
2019 – Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19)
Not-equal: Democratizing research in digital innovation for social justice
2019 – Interactions
Infrastructuring public service transformation: Creating collaborative spaces between communities and institutions through HCI research
2019 – ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
Infrastructuring Food Democracy: The Formation of a Local Food Hub in the Context of Socio-Economic Deprivation
2019 – Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
2018
Food democracy in the making: Designing with local food networks
2018 – Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18)
Spokespeople: Exploring Routes to Action through Citizen-Generated Data
2018 – Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18)
Infrastructuring the Solidarity Economy: Unpacking Strategies and Tactics in Designing Social Innovation
2018 – Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18)
Streets for People: Engaging Children in Placemaking Through a Socio-technical Process
2018 – Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
2017
Exploring Public Places as Infrastructures for Civic M-Learning
2017 – 8th International Conference on Communities and Technologies
HCI, solidarity movements and the solidarity economy
2017 – CHI'17 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
2016
Refugees and HCI SIG: The Role of HCI in Responding to the Refugee Crisis
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
Digital Civics: Citizen empowerment with and through technology
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
Re-Making Places: HCI, 'Community Building' and Change
2016 – ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016
TryFilm: Situated Support for Interactive Media Productions
2016 – The 19th ACM Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW 2016)
Re-configuring Participatory Media for Citizen Elders in Urban Planning
2016 – Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Media Architecture Biennale
2015
Contesting the City: Enacting the political through digitally supported urban walks
2015 – CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Beyond Participatory Production: Digitally Supporting Grassroots Documentary
2015 – Proceedings of the 33rd annual SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2015
Designing Alternative Systems for Local Communities
2015 – CHI EA '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Interactive Design Documentary As A Method For Civic Engagement
2015 – TVX 2015 - ACM International Conference on Interactive Experiences for TV and Online Video
2014
A pool of dreams: facebook, politics and the emergence of a social movement
2014 – Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '14)
The Department Of Hidden Stories: Playful Digital Storytelling for Children in a Public Library
2014 – 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Socially engaged arts practice in HCI
2014 – CHI '14 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '14)