Decolonising in, by and through participatory design with political activists in Palestine

Abstract

We contribute a conceptual framework for decolonising PD praxis with the aim of surfacing unsettling agendas. Our framework was developed in response to collaborating with young Bedouin activists in Palestine, where there is a need not only to delink approaches from potential damaging epistemological and ontological ways of knowing and being, but to recognise differently constituted positionalities, the geopolitical specificities of place and the role of INGOs alongside the cultural contexts of ongoing violence. We define our orientations as decolonising in, by and through PD praxis when working on issues of landbased conflict. We argue these multiplicitous orientations allow for negotiations between political struggle and indigenous connection to the land, how INGOs embody conflicting justice agendas and how equity enriches yet complicates community sustainment. In contexts of ongoing indigenous land-based conflict, we detail the framework as an approach for unsettling PD praxis. CCS CONCEPTS• Social and professional topics ~User characteristics ~Geographic characteristics