A little bit about me: I'm an academic whose work straddles human-computer interaction (HCI) and science and technology studies (STS). I find myself limited by HCI's focus on computation and dispirited by STS's descriptive (rather than normative) orientation toward science and technology. I recently learned about Progress Studies and am eager to contribute to the field.

Now, my question. In their Atlantic article, Collison & Cowen define progress as "the combination of economic, technological, scientific, cultural, and organizational advancement that has transformed our lives and raised standards of living over the past couple of centuries." What does it mean to "raise" standards of living? Who has defined standards of living, and who has decided if they are in fact being raised? I can imagine a few ways to do this, and am aware of a few examples of works that have tried (Pinker's Better Angels comes to mind).

What are the popular or canonical works that Progress Studies looks to understand what standards of living are and what it means to raise them?

Thanks for your time; very much looking forward to contributing more to this nascent discipline.

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