Participatory Design Interventions: Supporting University Student Care Networks During Covid

Abstract

The chapter presents research on a participatory project aimed at supporting and expanding student care networks during the Coronavirus pandemic. It features the process and products of transdisciplinary, intercultural collaboration involving tourism, biology, and environment students from the Universidad Estatal Amazónica and design students from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. The pandemic deepened the existing adverse socioeconomic conditions of Amazonian students, significantly affecting their well-being and access to higher education. Employing a situated, participatory design approach rooted in the Global South and an participatory action research framework, students developed together interactive activities fostering further connection, support, and care for one another amid the emergency. We reflect on the design intervention process and its outcomes, offering insights for organizing and adapting university responses to crises focused on student well-being. This project’s critical analysis could help shape future efforts to broaden the impact of participatory design and decolonial processes in education and intercultural spaces of resilience.