Designing for a Post-Growth Society through the Eco-Harmonist. A Critical Examination of the Role of HCI and Technology Design

Looking for a way out of the current environmental crises requires a critical examination of the role of HCI and technology design. Through a practice theoretic lens, we argue that technological innovation, coupled with economic growth, drives mechanisms like accumulation, acceleration, and stacking, heightening resource demands of daily life. These mechanisms lead to technological dependency as everyday tasks are increasingly delegated to technology, which undermines wellbeing through deskilling, artificialization, and disempowerment. We emphasize HCI's crucial role in these processes, aiming to enhance life's ease, pleasure, comfort, and safety through technological innovation. Drawing on post-growth literature, we argue for a different perspective on the 'good life', embodied by the eco-harmonist, someone committed to effort and skill acquisition. We propose some initial design-guidelines that aim to cater to the eco-harmonist and argue how it might assist HCI designers to shape everyday life to be more in line with the planetary limits.