On the Role of Value Sensitive Concerns in Software Engineering Practice

The role of software systems on societal sustainability has generally not been the subject of substantive research activity. In this paper we examine the role of software engineering practice as an agent of change/impact for societal sustainability through the manifestation of value sensitive concerns. These concerns remain relatively neglected by software design processes except at early stages of user interface design. Here, we propose a conceptual model that can contribute to a translation of value sensitive design from its current focus in participatory design to one located in mainstream software engineering processes. Addressing this need will have an impact of societal sustainability and we outline some of the key research challenges for that journey.