Everyday code: The project for democracy on our ‘desktop’

Abstract

This paper examines what I call the project for democracy, by which I mean a perpetual individual-and-collective project to manage our affairs ourselves, in all areas of our lives. The goal of the paper is to understand better what that project entails and how we can carry it out well. To do so, I examine a very prosaic empirical case, the software code that organizes the everyday environment of our personal computing devices: operating systems, window managers, wireless interfaces, system trays, and so on. What would the project of democracy look like in that context? The bulk of the paper is spent fleshing out an answer to that question. I then suggest that the project for democracy in the digital realm of the desktop is just one instance of the wider project for democracy. The desktop can be a little model that can guide and inspire the project for democracy in other arenas, such as the household, the neighborhood, the city, and beyond.