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Affected community
An affected community is a group of people who experience a system's consequences, whether or not they were consulted in its design or have any control over it.
Prerequisite: Stakeholder
What matters
Because they bear the consequences without necessarily having a voice in decisions, affected communities are the group most at risk of being overlooked during development.
Example
Residents of a neighborhood scored by a predictive policing tool are an affected community, regardless of whether they were ever asked about the tool's design.
Common misconception
An affected community is not the same as a system's customer base; a community can be affected by a system it never chose to use or interact with.
Recall question
Why are affected communities at particular risk of being overlooked in system design?
Keywords and related concepts
affected communityconsequencesstakeholdersstakeholder