Light, Ann and Akama, Yoko (2014) Structuring future social relations: the politics of care in participatory practice. 13th Participatory Design Conference, Windhoek, Namibia, 6th - 10th October 2014. Published in: PDC '14: Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Research Papers. 1 151-160. Association for Computing Machinery, New York. ISBN 9781450322560

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Abstract

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.

Item Type:	Conference Proceedings
Keywords:	Design, participatory, care, relations, social
Schools and Departments:	School of Engineering and Informatics > Engineering and Design
Research Centres and Groups:	Creative Technology
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NC Drawing. Design. Illustration N Fine Arts > NC Drawing. Design. Illustration > NC0703 General works N Fine Arts > NC Drawing. Design. Illustration > NC0760 Special subjects
Depositing User:	Ann Light
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2020 09:49
Last Modified:	04 May 2021 08:28
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/89178

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