The use of the absent and othering in design and critical analysis of PD activities

In this paper I explore the use of the concept representation and argue that it can complement the concept constituting in order to support the design and critical analysis of participatory design activities. John Law acknowledges that in a representation some things are made present, while others are deliberately made absent, which is necessary. But it is important to realise that there are also things that are Othered, i.e. things that are unconsciously repressed and absent. The concepts are explored with the help of two cases involving participatory design workshops. I discuss how both concepts can be used in order to make sense of these participatory design activities. The paper also reflects on the importance of what realities the method used supports to be made present.

[1]  Markus Miessen.  The Nightmare of Participation , 2011 .

[2]  B. Cooke,et al.  Participation: the New Tyranny? , 2001 .

[3]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Creativity in the design process: co-evolution of problem–solution , 2001 .

[4]  D. Schoen,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action , 1985 .

[5]  Marc Steen,et al.  Co-Design as a Process of Joint Inquiry and Imagination , 2013, Design Issues.

[6]  John Stewart,et al.  Language as Articulate Contact: Toward a Post-Semiotic Philosophy of Communication , 1995 .

[7]  John Robert Stewart.  Beyond the symbol model : reflections on the representational nature of language , 1996 .

[8]  Bo Westerlund,et al.  Regarding Design as a Constituting Practice Matters , 2011, Nordes 2011: Making Design Matter.

[9]  Bo Westerlund,et al.  Design Space Exploration co-operative creation of proposals for desired interactions with future artefacts , 2009 .

[10]  Håkan Edeholt,et al.  Glocal participatory design: designerly approaches for trans-local climate change initiatives , 2014, PDC '14.

[11]  John Law,et al.  Making a mess with method , 2007 .

[12]  Tuuli Mattelmäki,et al.  Taking design games seriously: re-connecting situated power relations of people and materials , 2014, PDC.

[13]  R. J. Bogumil,et al.  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action , 1985, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[14]  J. Law.  After Method: Mess in Social Science Research , 2004 .

[15]  Mariana Salgado,et al.  "... so what?": limitations of participatory design on decision-making in urban planning , 2014, PDC '14.