Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter

Seda Özçetin; Ylva Fernaeus; Şeyda Özçetin; Larissa Pschetz

doi:10.21606/nordes.2025.65

Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter

Seda Özçetin, Ylva Fernaeus, Şeyda Özçetin, Larissa Pschetz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as a design opening for more-than-human data governance, ecological temporalities, and the right to patchwork as generative concepts.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of Nordes 2025
Subtitle of host publication	Relational Design
Editors	Andrew Morrison, Alma Culén, Laurence Habib
Publisher	Design Research Society
Pages	707-718
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	9781912294589
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.65
Publication status	Published - 4 Aug 2025

Publication series

Name	DRS Conference Volumes
ISSN (Electronic)	1604-9705

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

terms of service
privacy policies
democratic data governance
more-than-human design
defamiliarization

Access to Document

10.21606/nordes.2025.65Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)

Pschetz2025DRS2025TowardsAccepted author manuscript, 2.5 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)
Pschetz2025Nordes2025TowardsFinal published version, 44.3 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)

Cite this

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title = "Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter",

abstract = "Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as a design opening for more-than-human data governance, ecological temporalities, and the right to patchwork as generative concepts.",

keywords = "terms of service, privacy policies, democratic data governance, more-than-human design, defamiliarization",

author = "Seda {\"O}z{\c c}etin and Ylva Fernaeus and {\c S}eyda {\"O}z{\c c}etin and Larissa Pschetz",

year = "2025",

month = aug,

day = "4",

doi = "10.21606/nordes.2025.65",

language = "English",

series = "DRS Conference Volumes",

publisher = "Design Research Society",

pages = "707--718",

editor = "Andrew Morrison and Alma Cul{\'e}n and Laurence Habib",

booktitle = "Proceedings of Nordes 2025",

}

Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter. / Özçetin, Seda; Fernaeus, Ylva; Özçetin, Şeyda et al.
Proceedings of Nordes 2025: Relational Design. ed. / Andrew Morrison; Alma Culén; Laurence Habib. Design Research Society, 2025. p. 707-718 (DRS Conference Volumes).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter

AU - Özçetin, Seda

AU - Fernaeus, Ylva

AU - Özçetin, Şeyda

AU - Pschetz, Larissa

PY - 2025/8/4

Y1 - 2025/8/4

N2 - Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as a design opening for more-than-human data governance, ecological temporalities, and the right to patchwork as generative concepts.

AB - Many of the current debates in technology concern the extractive practices around planetary resources and data, which produce electronic waste as well as everyday sense of clutter among media channels and files. In this paper, we engage with this problem space through a specific focus on Terms of Service agreements, which have become a prerequisite for even the most rudimentary use of technology. We do this by presenting an exploded view of an existing Terms of Service policy ecosystem, in the form of an outdoor installation, temporarily littering a patch of nature. Through this installation, we expose eco-social contracts as a design opening for more-than-human data governance, ecological temporalities, and the right to patchwork as generative concepts.

KW - terms of service

KW - privacy policies

KW - democratic data governance

KW - more-than-human design

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PB - Design Research Society

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Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter

Abstract

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Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

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Fingerprint

D-CoDE: Fundamentals of Design Competence for Our Digital Future

Cite this

Towards eco-social contracts through an entangled manifestation of digital litter

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

D-CoDE: Fundamentals of Design Competence for Our Digital Future

Cite this