An Activist Lens for Sustainability: From Changing Individuals to Changing the Environment

Design for sustainability is of much interest in Persuasive Technology (PT) and interventions are often targeted to change individual’s behaviour. These interventions aim to change lifestyles to be more ecologically sustainable, however the social and economic circumstances individuals live in often counteract these intentions. Activism has been proposed as a way to address such social circumstances. The contribution of this paper is to further develop an activist lens to present strategies for interventions that address policy makers as well as provide insight into how individuals can engage in activism supported by technology to advance change. Our activist lens points to active data generation and perceived agency by individuals and hybrid forms of interventions. We also address the limitations of technology in such approaches. An activist lens on sustainability and PT might provide a useful new entry point for designing change interventions from the individual to the collective.