Overview
The essay where Agre names and articulates "critical technical practice" as a methodology. Drawing on his own experience moving from AI systems work to critical theory, he lays out a program for doing technical work that incorporates reflexive awareness of its own assumptions and social context.
The piece is both autobiographical and programmatic — Agre tells the story of his own intellectual journey from AI graduate student to critic, and extracts from that story a set of generalizable practices for others who find themselves in similar positions within technical fields.
Key Arguments
To be developed with close reading of the text.
Significance
This is the essay that made Agre's methodological contribution legible to a broad audience. "Critical technical practice" has been taken up across multiple fields — HCI, design, STS, digital humanities — as a framework for maintaining both technical competence and critical awareness.