A visit to the 'new Utopia': revitalizing democracy, emancipation and quality in co-operative design

25 years ago co-operative design started out as a result of technological immersion in workplace settings. The cooperative design approach propagated how ideals as democracy, emancipation and quality were essential when designing technology for workplaces. Today, technology is spread into domestic and non-professional practices. Even though time has changed over the past 25 years, this paper argues for a revitalization of the 'Utopian' ideals when designing technology for everyday use. By addressing the original 'Utopian' ideals in the light of the new challenges for co-operative design, this paper voices the need for democracy, emancipation and quality when designing technology for non-professional use. The paper discusses the ideals in three current design projects.

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