Dissolving boundaries: social technologies and participation in design

Abstract: The emphasis on participation in social technologies challenges some of our traditional assumptions about the role of users and designers in design. It also exposes some of the limitations and assumptions about design embedded in our traditional models and methods. Based on a review of emerging practice we present four perspectives on design in the context of social technologies. By presenting this âlay of the landâ, we seek to contribute to ongoing work on the nature of participation and design in the context of social technologies. We draw particular attention to the ways in which roles and responsibilities in design are being reassigned and redistributed. As traditional boundaries between design and use and designer and user dissolve, design is becoming more public. In the context of social technologies design is moving out into the wild

A Suburban Communications Network: Recurrence of Use, Growth of Participation, and the Challenges of Sustainability

This paper presents findings from a longitudinal research project exploring the use of a local digital community noticeboard and the mechanisms that have worked to grow and sustain community participation in this communications network. The lessons learnt from this research include the importance of providing clear indication to community members that communications are being seen by the community, maintaining visibility of high interest community- building communications, and involving community organisers. In discussion of our research, we suggest that future design supports visibility of long-term communications, and provides an accessible place to make communications public (with less emphasis on linking individual identities)

The social geography of childcare: 'making up' the middle class child

Childcare is a condensate of disparate social forces and social processes. It is gendered and classed. It is subject to an excess of policy and political discourse. It is increasingly a focus for commercial exploitation. This is a paper reporting on work in progress in an ESRC funded research project (R000239232) on the choice and provision of pre-school childcare by middle class (service class) families in two contrasting London locations. Drawing on recent work in class analysis the paper examines the relationships between childcare choice, middle class fractions and locality. It suggests that on the evidence of the findings to date, there is some evidence of systematic differences between fractions in terms of values, perspectives and preferences for childcare, but a more powerful case for intra-class similarities, particularly when it comes to putting preferences into practice in the 'making up of a middle class child' through care and education

Understanding Canadians’ Declining Confidence in Public Education

Canadians’ confidence in public education is declining. We present new evidence, both attitudinal and behavioural, confirming this trend. More significantly, we investigate several possible explanations for the trend, including demographic as well as institutional perspectives. Our analysis finds little support for demographic shifts as an explanation, but we do find that confidence in all institutions, not just public education, is waning. We compare and contrast various interpretations of these findings, building especially on the themes of the knowledge society and the risk society. We interpret these findings as showing that Canadians see schooling as increasingly important. La confiance des canadiens dans l’enseignement public n’est plus ce qu’elle était. Les au- teurs présentent de nouvelles données sur les comportements et les attitudes qui viennent le confirmer. En outre, ils se penchent surtout sur plusieurs explications possibles de cette tendance, y compris les facteurs démographiques et institutionnels. D’après leur analyse, il n’est guère possible de retenir l’explication démographique, mais ils ont effectivement pu observer la perte de confiance dans toutes les institutions, et pas seulement dans l’enseignement public. Les auteurs comparent diverses façons d’interpréter ces constata- tions en insistant tout particulièrement sur les thèmes de la société de la connaissance et de la société du risque. D’après eux, les résultats observés démontrent que les canadiens considèrent l’éducation comme étant de plus en plus importante.

Connecting with home, keeping in touch : physical and virtual mobility across stretched families in sub-Saharan Africa.

There is a long history of migration among low-income families in sub-Saharan Africa, in which (usually young, often male) members leave home to seek their fortune in what are perceived to be more favourable locations. While the physical and virtual mobility practices of such stretched families are often complex and contingent, maintaining contact with distantly located close kin is frequently of crucial importance for the maintenance of emotional (and possibly material) well-being, both for those who have left home and for those who remain. This article explores the ways in which these connections are being reshaped by increasing access to mobile phones in three sub-Saharan countries – Ghana, Malawi and South Africa – drawing on interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research from twenty-four sites, ranging from poor urban neighbourhoods to remote rural hamlets. Stories collected from both ends of stretched families present a world in which the connectivities now offered by the mobile phone bring a different kind of closeness and knowing, as instant sociality introduces a potential substitute for letters, cassettes and face-to-face visits, while the rapid resource mobilization opportunities identified by those still at home impose increasing pressures on migrant kin

New Approaches to Urban Planning - Insights from Participatory Communities

The new approaches to urban planning, such as participatory time and e-planning, comprise methods that allow us to analyse, develop, implement and monitor physical, functional and participatory structures at the neighbourhood level and beyond. They enable models of planning that may bring about an architecture of opportunities. This means the building of a supportive infrastructure of everyday life that encourages citizens to participate not only in formal decision-making, but actually in the co-design and co-production of their own local environment, on the basis of daily and future activities, at different scales