App-mediated chronic illness: How can we dial up social justice?

Join us for an in-person collaborative symposium exploring how social stigma, shame, and harmful value systems are often embedded in technologies and AI systems designed for chronic illness support.

This event builds on the organisers’ British Academy project that is investigating the values embedded in digital food-tracking tools repurposed by people with diabetes. Our research has found that apps often frame the body as controllable and weight loss as easy and inevitable, contributing to weight stigma, disordered eating, and shame for people with diabetes. We believe there's an urgent need to reimagine digital health tools that support long-term well-being of chronic, unsolvable conditions, by recognising the social bias that influences their design.

We would therefore like to invite researchers from across design spaces, medical humanities, fat studies, gender studies, sociology of health, and intersectional health spaces to interrogate the normative assumptions built into current digital tracking systems. We’ll explore how we might develop alternatives that resist diet-culture logics and centre the needs, values, and realities of users who are often looking to these technologies during periods of overwhelm.

Through interactive sessions, we will identify primary obstacles and opportunities, with a view to developing potential future collaborations. We will bring together a growing network of researchers and designers interested in building chronic illness technologies that are justice-oriented and community-informed. The event is organised by Dr Gemma Gibson (University of Sheffield) and Dr Aisha Sobey (University of Cambridge).

Provisional Timetable (10:00 AM – 3:00 PM)

Time    Session

10:00 – 10:30 AM    Welcome + Introductions

Framing the day: shame, stigma, and justice in digital health

10:30 – 11:00 AM    Research Provocations Panel

Exploring diet-culture, diabetes care, and digital design assumptions 

11:00 – 11:15 AM Break

11:15 – 12:30 PM Reflecting on the areas of interest

Whole group discussion to identify interest areas and current challenges

12:30 – 1:15 PM Lunch Break

1:15 – 2:15 PM Futures Exercise

Provocations from participants will be shared and small group ideation session around possible alternatives and solutions 

2:15 – 2:45 PM Sharing + Reflections

Key insights, and research directions

2:45 – 3:00 PM Closing Remarks

Next steps and invitation to stay involved

Room accessibility statement: 

Location: Syndics Room, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB21RX 

Please understand the building (and Cambridge) is old and has some accessibility challenges. We have chosen a building that is as accessible as possible, and will also have a second room available through the day if anyone needs a quiet break or private space during the day. There is physical access information here:  https://www.accessable.co.uk/university-of-cambridge/silver-street-and-mill-lane/access-guides/17-mill-lane#53587b7a-1c37-1147-a548-82b51ca573f2 

If you have any requirements, questions or concerns around accessibility Aisha ([email protected]) is happy to discuss these.

Accessibility Measures: 

We have a limited travel, accessibility and inclusion fund available for travel. We cannot pay speaker fees or wages, but if you feel that your attendance would be enabled by travel funding, please get in touch with us. We will allocate the funding on a case-by-case basis and are only able to reimburse costs after the event.

Host or Publisher Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield