Exploring the complexity of participation

Abstract

This research aims to re-articulate the concept of participation in design research by adopting a relational, temporal and process-oriented perspective. In the paper we draw on recent theory where human interaction is understood as complex responsive processes of relating. Thus, participation is seen as people taking part in creating social objects that emerge in the complex social processes of everyday organisational life. This perspective challenges conceptions of participation as normative as well as the tendency to make methods of participation generalizable and replicable. Based on an organisational case in which multiple stakeholders are involved in collaborative design processes, we describe how social dynamics and issues of power, enable and constrain participation and argue that participation cannot, strictly, be accounted for on the foundation of designed temporary workshop spaces, methods and tools for engagement or the facilitation of the researcher or designer. On that basis, we will introduce a concept which argues that participation is how people engage the temporal emergence of daily interactions and on-going conversations that unfold in complex processes of relating, influencing action, interaction, identity and meaning. Keywords: Participation; complex responsive processes of relating; co-design; infrastructuring; participatory design; interdependency and researchers often take assumptions of the idea of participation for granted (Winschiers-Theophilus 2012; Saad-Sulonen et al. 2018) leaving much room for individual interpretation, as few contributions articulate what participation actually might mean. This calls for a more thorough reflection on current understanding of participation, the challenges and opportunities these engender, and possible directions for the future.Our paper sets out to reflect on and re-articulate the complexity of participation in design research practice. We will argue for an understanding of participation as the on-going interaction between those involved in emergent processes of relating. Although this perspective might seem straight-forward, it challenges normative and pre-defined understandings of participation. Our perspective originates from more recent organisational research in which human interaction is articulated as complex responsive processes of relating (Stacey et al. 2000). This theory focuses on the temporal emergence of social dynamics, including power relations. We draw parallels to the current discussions in some strands of design research, such as participatory design (PD) and infrastructuring, focusing on how we can understand the nature of participation, when taking into account the non-linear, fluctuating and spontaneous character of human interaction.

The co‐design of an online support programme with and for informal carers of people with heart failure: A methodological paper

“…It is well known that co‐designing is time‐consuming (Donetto et al, 2015; Green et al, 2020) and the inherent unpredictability in co‐design, often including revisions and adaptions (Mosleh & Larsen, 2021) could contribute to this extended time factor. The co‐design process spanned over approximately 4 years which might be viewed as a limitation since prolonged time between different phases in co‐design has been described as a cause for dropout (Green et al, 2020) and it could potentially have made it difficult to keep carers engaged throughout the whole co‐design process.…”

“…The research group kept carers and content creators regularly informed about the project and purpose of their involvement. Further, events were organized and staged for joint discussions—creating an infrastructure for engaging in co‐design (Mosleh & Larsen, 2021). The research group strived to be flexible and pragmatic in relation to carers' opportunities for joining in different activities as this could enable engagement (Liabo et al, 2020).…”

Overcoming Barriers to Including Agricultural Workers in the Co‐Design of New AgTech: Lessons from a COVID‐19‐Present World

“…In doing so, we pay particular attention to the politics that inspired the project’s co‐design processes and their effects on our response–abilities as social science researchers. Our approach contributes to a growing field of scholarship taking seriously the complex relational and temporal dynamics involved in co‐design as a way to support researchers to more effectively facilitate and engage in collaborative processes (e.g., Mosleh and Larsen 2020), as well as strategies for “staying with the trouble” when tensions and difficulties arise within these processes (Haraway 2016; Andersen and Mosleh 2020).…”

Fieldworking the relational complexity of organizations

“…The interaction with the organization was designed as a longitudinal ethnographic study of a research project aimed at studying organizational processes of product innovation in a technology development department, with a focus on understanding how design methods, such a tangible artefacts (Mosleh, 2017) and improvisational theatre (Mosleh and Larsen, 2020) may support collaborative practices of innovation across the department.…”

“…The research collaborations depicted in this paper originate from a partnership between the technology development department of a large Scandinavian manufacturing company and a design research centre of the university. Research collaborations in the partnership aimed at developing methods and conversational tools (Eftekhari and Larsen, 2013; Andersen and Mosleh, 2020; Mosleh and Larsen, 2020) to support the company's innovation capabilities in the product development process. The authors, working from backgrounds in design anthropology (Gunn and Donovan, 2012; Gunn and Løgstrup, 2014), participatory innovation (Buur and Matthews, 2008) and complexity theory-informed inquiry (Stacey et al , 2000; Stacey and Mowles, 2016; Buur and Larsen, 2010), were engaged in a diverse array of “investigative endeavours” (Watson, 2010) with members of the technology development department.…”