Alternative Futures: Digital Apps and the Governance and Experience of 'Slow Emergencies'

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'Alternative Futures' will explore how digital apps are used bymarginalised communities and individuals to disrupt and re-order'slow emergencies' - understood as situations of ongoing andendemic harm or damage which gradually wear down people andpopulations. A key characteristic of 'slow emergencies' are thatpeople affected by them or concerned by them need to make claimsthat seemingly ordinary situations should be treated as'emergencies': occasions necessitating an urgent response fromsome kind of governing authority. The project focuses on how appshave emerged as a key way of rendering slow emergencies visible,means of mitigating their effects, and a resource for making claimsor demands to governmental agencies for further action to end oralleviate the situation of harm or damage. Through case studies ofapps developed in relation to three slow emergencies, racism, antirefugee discrimination, and state withdrawal and homelessness, theproject will look at how apps are designed, rationalised, andpromoted by organisations concerned with justice, and used bypeople living with situations of ongoing harm. It will use acombination of interface analysis, mobile ethnographies, and in depth interviews with users, app designers, and organisationsworking in relation to each of the three areas. The result will be thefirst study of the use of apps as a way of living through andattempting to end slow emergencies.