
Clara Crivellaro
Lecturer
I am Senior Research Fellow in Digital Local Democracy. My fellowship explores the interplay between technologies, democratic practices and social justice; it aims to design tools and participatory processes to democratise digital innovation with a particular concern for equity and civic participation in social digital innovations.
I am currently Principal Investigator for Not-Equal, the EPSRC Network+ on Social Justice through the Digital Economy (2018-2021). I am Co-Investigator for the H2020 Generative European Urban Commons, gE.CO (2019-2022) and a member of OLAthens, a non-for profit organization that supports social innovation in Greece.
My research interests include Participatory Design, and co-creation, service design, tools and place-based participatory processes to activate communities and to support political engagement with technology and broader social issues in and of place. I am currently involved in projects that explore HCI and food justice; HCI, place-making and youth activism; AI and sexual health online information seeking practices; trade unions in the digital era; the design of tools to support critical digital literacy.
Before starting the research fellowship, I was a post-doc at Open Lab working on the EPSRC funded MyPlace project. I obtained my PhD in Computing at Newcastle University. My thesis explored the role of technology and design to support forms of 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 cultural sector. I have an MA in Curatorial practice and a BA in Arts & Design.

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

Place-Based Policymaking and HCI

Let's Talk Parks: creating collaborative spaces to envision and transform public parks services

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

Not-Equal: Exploring social justice in the digital economy

Sense Explorers: tools for children to transform the environment

Spokespeople: helping cyclists record incidents on the road

OurPlace: an app for learning about people and places
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
2021
Opening research commissioning to civic participation: creating a community panel to review the social impact of HCI research proposals
2021 – Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI ’21
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 (CSCW)
Research with a Solidarity Clinic: Design Implications for CSCW Healthcare Service Design
2021 – Computer Supported Cooperative Work: CSCW: An International Journal
Sustaining a networked community resource: Findings from a longitudinal situated display deployment
2021 – Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '21)
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)