The Carrier Bag Theory of Computing

Returning to our initial critique which in its core tried to highlight the Californian Ideology permeating computing, its persistence of framing itself through killer stories and its lack of interdisciplinary perspectives, participation, and the focus on embodied, mundane and material, we now want to offer an alternative lens to the mainstream engagement with computing as a discipline and its technologies: The Carrier Bag Theory of Computing.

As already introduced in our problem analysis, the Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction of (amongst other things) science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin [1989] is a speculative tool for formulating alternatives to the killer stories focused on the spear and sword as they have been prevalent in fiction.

What is the Carrier Bag Theory of Computing?

In its broadest strokes, the Carrier Bag Theory of Computing is a figuration, a lens, and a metaphor, with the aim of softening the hard edges of the discipline, so the Informatics scholars of the future would be trained to be composers rather than engineers. It presents a minor trajectory of computing that is grounded in material concerns and the vernacular. The aim of Carrier Bag Theory of Computing is to move away from the grand inventions and applications at scale so prevalent in the discipline’s killer stories, and instead send out an invitation to ask about material concerns, situations, and places. The carrier bag therefore offers a broader grounding for computer science that exceeds mathematical knowledge and instead is a collection of knowledges, approaches, expertise, and ideas one encounters on their (academic) path. In other words, the carrier bag is an invitation to start the construction of a different trajectory for computing practices, their presence, and future.

A Carrier Bag Theory of Computing requires a reconfiguration towards ethico-onto-epistem-ology to not only account for the abstract dimensions, but also for the ethical and material aspects of computing, and highlights the interconnectedness of ethics, ontology, and epistemology in knowledge production in general. Or at least, it should allow for and give space to different threads and stories that make up computing to be visible and accounted for.

Working differently with knowledge, a carrier bag approach draws on the image of patchwork: Combining technological and non-technological, human and more-than-human knowledges, these perspectives are not slapped on as an afterthought in computing. These different knowledges, perspectives and ideas are stitched together, mend gaps, and add texture to the bag itself. Through practices of collecting sewing, stitching and embroidering, different knowledges are tied together and intra-act within the Carrier Bag Theory of Computing.

The Carrier Bag Theory of Computing is attentive to what is present and draws selectively on it to germinate what might be missing:

🧺 The central focus of a Carrier Bag Theory of Computing is on the mundane and everyday. It is a way of investigating and investing in underexplored paths and hidden figures to construct a parallel trajectory that would address computing otherwise. In other words, this is not a new grand theory of computing, but a parallel plane, intersecting with the mainstream canon but also diverging from it: it is a trajectory for a minor computing - an alternative going against the grain. With a Carrier Bag Theory of Computing we want to put a conscious focus on the minor perspectives and histories of computing as its situated politic of location.

🧺 A Carrier Bag Theory of Computing draws on a feminist ethics of care, which requires attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. It requires know-how, judgement, rational explications of needs, and sympathetic appreciations of emotion [88]. For those engaged with computing, this means moving away from technological determinism and solutionism, and adopting the dictum of listening first and implementing later.

🧺 Materiality and embodiment are central qualities of the Carrier Bag Theory of Computing. It disrupts the myth of disembodied abstraction, revealing computation as a material-semiotic practice that gathers, transforms, and redistributes both signs/symbols and substances/matters. It focuses on the material aspects of computing technologies, the material contexts in which they are used, and the embodied interaction between humans, non-humans, and more-than-humans.

🧺 A Carrier Bag Theory of Computing requires a fundamentally post-disciplinary approach to move beyond its surface-level interdisciplinarity. This does not mean the implementation of computing technology in other disciplines or the development of IT artefacts for different domains. It requires new post-disciplinary methods and rethinking of the old ones in post-disciplinary dimensions. A carrier bag approach allows change and alternative answers, it allows for multiple perspectives, insights from “outside”, and non-technological “fixes.”

What we have presented here – the Carrier Bag Theory of Computing with all its facets – is an otherwise way to engage with computing focusing on the minor stories instead of grand narratives. We aim to soften the disciplinary boundaries containing knowledges on computing and advocate for an integrative approach, which frames computing not as a creation from vacuum, but as an activity of composition focusing on layering and integration.

Custodian, Intermediary, Interpreter: The Role of the Computer Scientist

When adopting a Carrier Bag Theory of Computing, the role of the computing scholar also changes away from an individualist hero in a killer story. In line with a feminist ethics of care approach, the role of the computing scholar should entail attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness.

Guided by these principle qualities, the role of the computing scholar can take various shapes depending on the context of the situation and the positions of those involved. We suggest three such core roles: computing scholar as custodian, intermediary and interpreter. Central to these roles is still the aspect of care.

The computing scholar as a custodian engages in caregiving activities towards computing itself, meaning its knowledges, technologies, practices, and ideas. The custodian collects these ideas and perspectives, and minor histories of computing in their carrier bag, preserving them on their journey, and conserving them for future encounters. Importantly the custodian does not contain these ideas in a static form, but disseminates them amongst the community, and keeps on collecting. Accordingly, the computing scholar in a role as custodian works on maintaining the world of computing and its material-semiotic components.

When employing a carrier bag approach of computing, one finds themselves standing between disciplines due to the aforementioned post-disciplinary orientation. The computing scholar as intermediary takes responsibility in this bridging between disciplines, making connections between theories, methods, and practices. The intermediary is aware of the multi-perspectivity surrounding computing and therefore not just focuses on solving a problem, but takes the socio-technical context into account. This requires knowledges across disciplines and accordingly, the intermediary has to engage in caregiving activities directed towards computing education and the training of computing scholars. The intermediary is competent in approaching computation as composition, layering, and allowing alternative solutions. Caregiving then entails to maintain and passing on these practices of composition.

Computing scholars also have a responsibility towards the worlds and people that come into contact with their technologies. Not only do computing scholars have a responsibility for the technologies they develop, they are also responsible for facilitating the communication taking place within this assemblage of humans, technologies, and their environments. Computing scholars therefore take on the role of interpreter between computing and society, engaging in caregiving activities to those who come in contact with their technologies. Caregiving here implies not only designing with the user in mind. It should include actively listening to the “full stories” [88]. Nevertheless, caregiving here goes beyond providing technological fixes, and includes the communication of the underlying concepts and ideas of computing, so users can live well with them, as well as allowing non-technological solutions.

Considering these different roles, computing scholars can take on in their caregiving activities, the central focus should be on designing systems with the ambivalent nature of the carrier bag in mind.

Where are the limits of the carrier bag? What falls through the threads?

As with every approach or theory, there are limitations to their application. Similarly, not everything fits into the carrier bag we have presented here. First, it is important to note, that the carrier bag approach is not an all-encompassing theory accounting for everything computing does. It is also not a replacement theory for the current theoretical grounding of computing. Instead, it is a way of thinking that focuses on specific perspectives instead of a grand narrative.

While a carrier bag can account for practices of storing, sharing, and transporting of knowledge and perspectives, it might not present the ideal metaphor for mapping the transformative nature of computing and design. Nonetheless, if carrier bag metaphor could expand to entail all kinds of carriers and containers - things that connect, communicate, transport, transpose, contain, hold, store, etc. - then we should imagine carrier bag of computing also as a magician’s hat: one might be surprised to draw out of it something completely different than one expected. This also accounts for the unanticipated, the unintended and the contingent that often haunts computing technologies.

Lastly, a carrier bag approach can fall victim to being shut with a lid. Following Sun and Geoghegan [2024], while some bags can be containers, a carrier bag theory of computing should defy closure. While a carrier bag approach should be open-ended and in flux, it can be tempting to gather and collect perspectives and ideas, and at some point close off the carrier bag like the treasure at the end of hero stories, using the perspectives gathered in containment without acknowledging their changing contexts.

These limitations and loose threads of carrier bags showcase one of the practices that could be central in adopting this approach: Working with a carrier bag requires its carrier to engage in diffractive practices [67], including examining one’s own entanglement in the material-discursive surroundings of the situation, and confronting one’s own privilege, authority, methods, and assumptions [108]. Importantly it means giving up the role of lone hero or narrative authority, and instead assume positions focusing on collective caring practices.

Weaving Networks for the Future

This wiki is a mix of a prototype for a bigger network for those touched by the stories of computing, and at the same time it is also the conceptualisation of the carrier bag approach to computing. By mixing form and content in a way that they supplement each other, we want to give a first impression of our aims and offer an outlook on further development.

Most importantly, the carrier bag approach is not a sealed off artifact, but a communal journey on a minor trajectory of computing. By showcasing stories from parallel perspectives, offering first ideas on community approaches, sharing our carrier bags, and lighting our digital campfire, we hope to spark the flame for exchange and a network for perspectives on computing.

This contribution represents the first step to a living document in form of a community-wide wiki offering resources, connections, and stories to gather in and share from our carrier bags. As part of these first steps, we invite you to take a moment to ponder the questions we followed when weaving together this carrier bag approach: