Inviting, Affording and Translating Harm: Understanding the Role of Technological Mediation in Technology-Facilitated Violence

Abstract

Abstract Technologies not only extend capabilities but also mediate experience and action. To date, however, research on technology-facilitated violence has tended not to focus on the role technological mediation plays in acts of violence facilitated through technology. Building on prior work in the field, this article develops a theoretical framework and typology for understanding the role technological mediation plays in producing technology-facilitated violence. First, drawing on postphenomenological theories of technology, we argue that technology-facilitated violence is best understood as a form of ‘harm translation,’ where a technology’s affordances and other properties ‘invite’ an individual to actualize harmful ends. Then, distinguishing between four modes of harm translation, we construct a typology for analysing the intersections between user intention and technological design that, together, facilitate violence. We argue that by attending to these distinctions our typology may help researchers and designers identify and address the specific causal dynamics involved in producing different kinds of technology-facilitated harm.