Book part

Techno-Biographical Reflexive Atelier: A Method for Exploring Personal Narratives and Sociotechnical Transformations

Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 16110))

Luciana Lima; Cláudia Silva; Ana Pires — 2025 — Springer

Key information

Authors:

Luciana Lima; Cláudia Silva (Cláudia Silva); Lorena Ramos; Ana Pires (Ana Cristina de Oliveira Tomé Lopes Pires)

Published in

December 2025

Abstract

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.

Publication details

Authors in the community:

Publisher

Springer

Link to the publisher's version

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-05005-2_25

Title of the publication container

Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 16110))

Volume

16110

First page or article number

497

Last page

508

DOI

10.1007/978-3-032-05005-2_25

Fields of Science and Technology (FOS)

other-social-sciences - Other social sciences

Keywords

  • Collaborative autoethnography
  • Qualitative method
  • First-person method
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Publication language (ISO code)

eng - English

Alternative identifier (URI)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-05005-2_25

Rights type:

Open access