Techno-Biographical Reflexive Atelier: A Method for Exploring Personal Narratives and Sociotechnical Transformations
摘要
This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the Techno-Biographical Reflexive Atelier (TeBRA), a novel collaborative autoethnographic method designed to explore how personal narratives intersect with sociotechnical systems. Rooted in first-person methodologies, TeBRA emphasizes reflexivity, lived experience, and critical engagement with technology use and design. Conducted between April 2024 and June 2025, three ateliers were carried out with participants from diverse social, national, and academic backgrounds. Each atelier comprised four sessions. While all contributed to refining the method, this paper focuses on the first, which brought together four women HCI researchers with varied positionalities in terms of race, national origin, academic background, and sexual orientation. The method’s distinguishing features include its reflexive dialogic nature, capacity to involve more than three participants, and structured activities where participants retell each other’s stories. These activities foster empathy, surface power dynamics, and illuminate how privilege and marginalization shape relationships with technology. We contribute with a new approach to enable HCI researchers to reflect on their unique life stories, the technologies they engage with, and the socio-cultural environments in which they operate.