Nonhumans in participatory design

Rice, Louis

Abstract

© 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This article examines the role that nonhumans play in participatory design. Research and practice concerned with participatory design mostly focuses on human participants, however nonhumans also participate in the design process and can play a significant role in shaping the process. This article focuses on how nonhumans participate in the design process. An empirical case study is used to illustrate how humans and nonhumans assemble to form networks in order to effect a design. Nonhumans increase the level of participation in a design process. The case study reveals how nonhumans help to maintain, destroy or strengthen networks by substituting, mediating and communicating with humans and often, in doing so, making human actors more or less visible in the process. Nonhumans play a part in configuring the social. Revealing the presence and roles of nonhumans is an important means through which to increase the democracy within the design process.

Citation

Rice, L. (2018). Nonhumans in participatory design. CoDesign, 14(3), 238-257. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1316409

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 3, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2017
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 2, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 20, 2018
• Journal: CoDesign
• Print ISSN: 1571-0882
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-3755
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 238-257
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1316409
• Keywords: participatory design, nonhumans, actor-network, urban design, tactical urbanism
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/889023
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1316409
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts on 20th April 2017, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2017.1316409