1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
|
{% extends "common/news.j2" %}
{% block body_content %}
<h1>2021-11: "Understanding and designing technologies for everyday financial collaboration" published</h1>
<p>
We are happy to announce that Belén finished her PhD thesis
on"Understanding and designing technologies for everyday financial
collaboration" which contains many inspirational ideas for future
payment systems like GNU Taler:
</p>
<p>
Perhaps enticed by the promise of reduced marginal costs per customer and other
“operational efficiencies”, the financial industry seems to take for granted that
introducing technology into their services delivers convenience and makes it easier
for people to manage their money. The overwhelmingly positive discourse that
surrounds financial technologies portrays them as the inevitable next step in the
evolution of money, and as driving consumer empowerment by reducing costs and
improving quality of service. Research, however, has linked those very same
technologies to new and existing forms of financial exclusion. This raises the
question of how we can design financial technologies that promote access and
fairness.
</p>
<p>
In this thesis, I take on this question by casting a critical lens over the design of
financial technologies through experiences of financial difficulty and financial third
party access. I conducted qualitative studies with a team inside the banking industry
tasked with servicing customers deemed “vulnerable”; and with a group of people
who live under the “double trouble” (Topor et al., 2016) of mental illness and
financial difficulty. The latter trialled a new financial third party access digital service
for 3 months. These varied perspectives on financial difficulty and third party access
reveal the unintended consequences of introducing technology into our interactions
with money, and the theories and assumptions concealed in the design of existing
financial technologies.
</p>
<p>
Based on the insights of these studies, and a synthesis of the literature on the
nature of money, this thesis contributes alternative paradigms that may help us
design financial technologies differently. Such technologies would reflect an
understanding of money as a social relation, and of our finances as a collaborative
endeavour. Rather than focusing on efficiency, resource optimisation and asset
protection, they would encourage flexibility, complementarity, reflection,
appropriation, positive forms of security, collaboration and participation. By
designing financial technologies under different theoretical premises and with
different priorities, we may promote access, fairness and democratic oversight in
financial service provision, particularly for those experiencing financial difficulty.
</p>
<h4>Download links</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="/papers/thesis_belen_barros_pena.pdf">PDF (English)</a></li>
</ul>
{% endblock body_content %}
|
