From Empowerment to Enablement. An evolution of new dimensions in participatory design (original) (raw)
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UTOPIA: Participatory Design from Scandinavia to the World
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2011
Studies and design of Information Technology support for workplaces, especially workshop floors, office floors and hospital floors, have a strong tradition in Scandinavia, involving workplace users and their trade unions and other stakeholders. The projects emphasize the active co-operation between researchers and workers in the organizations to help improve their work situation. This tradition is here put into and analysed in its historic perspective, starting with the roots in Norway in the early 1970s and highlighting the seminal UTOPIA project from the early 1980s. Today computer use and interaction possibilities are changing quickly, with use contexts and application types radically broadening. Technology no longer consists of static tools belonging only to the workplace, but permeates work on the move, homes and everyday lives. The Scandinavian tradition of user involvement in development is facing up with the challenges of new contexts. The influence on past and current practices for ICT system design internationally in described and analysed.
From Empowerment to Enablement
An evolution of new dimensions in, 1996
Since the seventies there has been a legislation in Sweden on user participation in design of work-places. This paper will discuss how participatory design has developed during this two decades in Sweden. We argue that in the beginning participation was mostly a matter of distribution of power between the employer and the unions. This developed into a tool to collect knowledge to improve the quality of the design. In the eighties we see a new dimension of participatory design, that of organisational learning and development through collective design. The paper discusses this evolution of participatory design in terms of some relevant factors; the actors, the mode of communication, focus of the design process, the goals, the roles of the actors, the context and finally the tools used and developed.
Scandinavian Design: On Participation and Skill
CRC Press eBooks, 2017
In Scandinavia we have for two decades been concerned with participation and skill in the design and use of computer-based systems. Collaboration between researchers and trade unions on this theme, starting with the pioneering work of Kristen Nygaard and the Norwegian Metal Workers' Union, and including leading projects like DEMOS and UTOPIA, has been based on a strong commitment to the idea of industrial democracy. This kind of politically significant, interdisciplinary, and action-oriented research on resources and control in the processes of design and use has contributed to what is often viewed abroad as a distinctively Scandinavian approach to systems design.
There is a need to extend Participatory design in order to apply it in heterogeneous user groups and large projects of strategic importance for organizations. This study displays an approach to capturing and including relevant external design voices using data from the design of an information system aimed to support the day-to-day tasks of Swedish shop stewards. It was found that shop stewards often use an operative voice, middle level union ombudsmen an organizational voice, and union federation management an ideological one when relating to information technology. An Activity theory analysis showed that the union organization stands at a crossroads, and that the choice of information technology will directly influence the future direction to be taken. It is argued that all parties in a design process must therefore be heard, in order to arrive at system solutions that are actually implemented, used and administrated.
From Utopia to DLK-Management of External Voices in Large Participatory Design Projects
There is a need to extend Participatory design in order to apply it in heterogeneous user groups and large projects of strategic importance for organizations. This study displays an approach to capturing and including relevant external design voices using data from the design of an information system aimed to support the day-to-day tasks of Swedish shop stewards. It was found that shop stewards often use an operative voice, middle level union ombudsmen an organizational voice, and union federation management an ideological one when relating to information technology. An Activity theory analysis showed that the union organization stands at a crossroads, and that the choice of information technology will directly influence the future direction to be taken. It is argued that all parties in a design process must therefore be heard, in order to arrive at system solutions that are actually implemented, used and administrated.
Participatory Design: A Historical Perspective
2021
Participatory design is an attitude about a force for change in the creation and management of environments for people. Its strength lies in being a movement that cuts across traditional professional boundaries and cultures. Its roots lie in the ideals of a participatory democracy where collective decision-making is highly decentralized throughout all sectors of society, so that all individuals learn participatory skills and can effectively participate in various ways in the making of all decisions that affect them. Increasingly complex decision-making processes require a more informed citizenry that has considered the evidence on the issue, discussed potential decision options and arrived at a mutually agreed upon decision (Abelson et al, 2003).Today participatory design processes are being applied to urban design, planning, and geography as well as to the fields of industrial and information technology. Research findings suggest that positive outcomes are associated with solutions...
Partitioning Vulnerabilities: On the Paradoxes of Participatory Design in the City of Malmö
Vulnerability in Scandinavian Art and Culture , 2020
In this chapter, Björgvinsson and Keshavarz challenge the claims of Scandinavian participatory design in initiating bottom-up change, democratic engagement and overcoming the vulnerabilities of marginal groups. By following its trajectory from its engagement with trade unions in the 1970s to local communities in the 2000s and beyond, the chapter problematizes participatory design’s presuppositions in relation to vulnerabilities associated with different groups. Through analysing a participatory design project where Björgvinsson was involved, the authors show how the call to and the process of participation always happen in an already partitioned world. As such, they argue participation does not necessarily give equal voices to participating parts, as frequently claimed but, rather, produce new parts, ignore certain other parts and lift up particular parts depending on the power relations involved. The chapter concludes that participatory methods not only generate less recognized vulnerabilities, but also ignore the resistance made by vulnerable groups against uneven participation.
Participatory Design: Issues and Concerns
Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1998
We characterize Participatory Design (PD) as a maturing area of research and as an evolving practice among design professionals. Although PD has been applied outside of technology design, here we focus on PD in relation to the introduction of computer-based systems at work. We discuss three main issues addressed by PD researchers; the politics of design; the nature of participation; and method, tools and techniques for participation. We also report on the conditions for the transfer of “PD results” to workers, user groups, and design professionals that have characterized PD over time and across geopolitical terrains. The topic of the sustainability of PD within an organizational context is also considered. The article concludes with a discussion of common issues explored within PD and CSCW and frames directions for a continuing dialogue between researchers and practitioners from the two fields. The article draws on a review of PD and CSCW literatures as well as on our own research and practical experiences.
The Importance of Describing Participatory Design in the Making
2012
This article is a call to describe Participatory Design (PD) projects in the making, i.e. to show how the heterogeneous elements in the field are gradually organised in a participatory manner as the projects progress. It is based on two arguments. The first is a negative argument. Very often, PD projects are not described in the making. As a result, the landmarks to be used to evaluate them remain unclear or invisible. The second argument is of a more positive nature. The articles that do describe projects in the making enable landmarks to be defined that can be effectively used to evaluate PD projects. The notion of emerging groups is one of these landmarks.