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Structuring future social relations: the politics of care in participatory practice
This paper explores the political shifts that take place in participatory design (PD) when the focus is upon co- designing ongoing future societal relations, beyond the immediacy of designing objects or services during project- time. Reflecting on connectedness, it looks at the politics of participation through the lens of people’s interdependence, using feminist concepts of ‘care’ to explore the ethical commitments of designing. In particular, it speaks to Greenbaum’s claim, 20 years ago, that ‘we have the obligation to provide people with the opportunity to influence their own lives’ (1993:47). We explore the questions this raises now, as we design in an increasingly distributed and heterogeneous socio-technical context, to give a contemporary take on long-term commitments to political and ethical outcomes in participatory design. Three contrasting case studies are interrogated to discuss how structuring of social relations was enabled, offering insights into what the politics of care might mean.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
PDC '14: Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Research PapersPublisher
Association for Computing MachineryExternal DOI
Volume
1Page range
151-160Event name
13th Participatory Design ConferenceEvent location
Windhoek, NamibiaEvent type
conferenceEvent date
6th - 10th October 2014Place of publication
New YorkISBN
9781450322560Department affiliated with
- Engineering and Design Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Creative Technology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes