Experiential Evaluation to Create Risky Situations and Address Tensions in a Participatory Planning Process

Planning processes often cause tensions between institutions and citizens because the local knowledge and values of the citizens are not included in the decision-making process, which can cause mistrust. This article builds on an ongoing PhD research that explores the potential of experiential evaluation as an alternative and experimental approach to "hybrid forums": an approach to open the participatory planning process for diverse actors and values. In order to render tensions visible and constructive in the participatory planning process, experiential evaluation creates "risky situations" in these hybrid forums. To discuss this approach of experiential evaluation, we use a methodological and analytical framework based on the four steps of strategic navigation techniques: tracing, mapping, diagramming, and agencying. We use these techniques to analyse two risky situations that were created through experiential evaluation within the participatory planning process of the neighbourhood spatial plan (NSP) of Zwijnaarde (Ghent, Belgium). Based on the analysis of the case, we observed that experiential evaluation was able to render tensions visible, but did not yet make them constructive. However, as a framework for a dialogue between institutions and citizens, the NSP leaves room to continue the experiential evaluation process that was initiated and to take further care of tensions on a smaller scale

Southern manners in northern lands: Design interventions for autonomía

This paper explores how the concept of autonomous design, as proposed by Arturo Escobar (2012, 2017a, 2017b) and inspired by the global South, can inform socially engaged design practices in the North. The concept of autonomy is approached from a southern perspective, not (only) from a geographical standpoint, but in understanding autonomous design as a relational practice that supports the self-realization of communities. We will inquire what the potentialities and limitations that a southern approach to interventionist practices in design can have in supporting autonomous processes are. In northern literature, autonomy is often seen as counter to interventionist practices in design. However, a southern perspective can give insights into how autonomy and interventions in design practices can inform and complement each other and we will develop this argument through a reflection on ‘building’ Non-Alignment. Furthermore, by presenting a project we have been involved in during the last two years, we will illustrate the process of developing a southern approach of interventions in northern lands, and discuss the influence this has had on a local autonomous process.Keywords: autonomous design, design interventions, southern epistemologies, non-aligned movement, participatory design, participatory action research

Diálogos democráticos que fazem funcionar as cidades

The field of Strategic Design supports designers in researching and designing for the complexity of today’s cities by embracing the idea of strategic dialogue, in which designers align with different actors and their interests. In this article, we discuss how democratic dialogues – foregrounded in the Participatory Design (PD) tradition – play a role in complex urban design processes (i.e. ‘infrastructuring’) and entail different types of dialogues of which strategic dialogue is merely one. After framing Strategic Design and PD, we describe five designer roles and their associated dialogues. This description forms the basis of an exploratory typology of democratic dialogues that was applied and exemplified in a case study about a Living Lab in the neighbourhood of Genk. The Lab attempts to design alternative futures for work in the city together with citizens, public and private organisations. We claim that engaging with this typology allows designers to understand and design infrastructuring processes in the urban context and to open up different design dialogues and roles for discussion.Keywords: democratic dialogues, living lab, urban context, designer roles, infrastructuring.O campo do design estratégico apoia o trabalho de designers que pesquisam e projetam para a complexidade das cidades de hoje. De fato, ao abraçar a ideia do diálogo estratégico, os designers se alinham com diferentes atores e seus interesses. Neste artigo, discutimos como diálogos democráticos – que estão em primeiro plano na tradição do Design Participativo (PD) – são relevantes em processos complexos de design urbano (ou seja, de “infraestruturação”) e implicam diferentes tipos de diálogos, entre os quais o diálogo estratégico é apenas um. Depois de enquadrar Design Estratégico e PD, descrevemos cinco papéis do designer e seus relativos diálogos. Esta descrição constitui a base de uma tipologia exploratória de diálogos democráticos que foi aplicada e exemplificada em um estudo de caso sobre um Living Lab, no bairro de Genk. O Lab tenta projetar futuros alternativos para o trabalho na cidade, juntamente com os cidadãos, organizações públicas e privadas. Afirmamos que se envolver com esta tipologia permite que os designers entendam e projetem processos de infraestruturação no contexto urbano e se abram para diferentes diálogos de design e papéis para a discussão.Palavras-chave: diálogos democráticos, living lab, contexto urbano, papéis do designer, infraestruturação

Dialectical design dialogues: negotiating ethics in participatory planning by building a critical design atlas

This article explores 'dialectical design dialogues' as an approach to engage with ethics in everyday urban planning contexts. It starts from Paulo Freire’s pedagogical view (1970/2017), in which dialogues imply the establishment of a horizontal relation between professionals and amateurs, in order to understand, question and imagine things in everyday reality, in this case, urban transformations, applied to participatory planning and enriched through David Harvey’s (2000, 2009) dialectical approach. A dialectical approach to design dialogues acknowledges and renegotiates contrasts and convergences of ethical concerns specific to the reality of concrete daily life, rather than artificially presenting daily life as made of consensus or homogeneity. The article analyses an atlas as a tool to facilitate dialectical design dialogues in a case study of a low-density residential neighbourhood in the city of Genk, Belgium. It sees the production of the atlas as a collective endeavour during which planners, authorities and citizens reflect on possible futures starting from a confrontation of competing uses and perspectives of neighbourhood spaces. The article contributes to the state-of-the-art in participatory urban planning in two ways: (1) by reframing the theoretical discussion on ethics by arguing that not only the verbal discourses around designerly atlas techniques but also the techniques themselves can support urban planners in dealing more consciously with ethics (accountability, morality and authorship) throughout urban planning processes, (2) by offering a concrete practice-based example of producing an atlas that supports the participatory articulation and negotiation of dialectical inquiry of ethics through dialogues in a 'real-time' urban planning process

Southern manners in northern lands: Design interventions for autonomía

This paper explores how the concept of autonomous design, as proposed by Arturo Escobar (2012, 2017a, 2017b) and inspired by the global South, can inform socially engaged design practices in the North. The concept of autonomy is approached from a southern perspective, not (only) from a geographical standpoint, but in understanding autonomous design as a relational practice that supports the self-realization of communities. We will inquire what the potentialities and limitations that a southern approach to interventionist practices in design can have in supporting autonomous processes are. In northern literature, autonomy is often seen as counter to interventionist practices in design. However, a southern perspective can give insights into how autonomy and interventions in design practices can inform and complement each other and we will develop this argument through a reflection on ‘building’ Non-Alignment. Furthermore, by presenting a project we have been involved in during the last two years, we will illustrate the process of developing a southern approach of interventions in northern lands, and discuss the influence this has had on a local autonomous process.Keywords: autonomous design, design interventions, southern epistemologies, non-aligned movement, participatory design, participatory action research

Unfolding Participation. What do we mean by participation – conceptually and in practice

The aim of the Unfolding Participation workshop is to outline an agenda for the next 10 years of participatory design (PD) and participatory human computer interaction (HCI) research. We will do that through a double strategy: 1) by critically interrogating the concept of participation (unfolding the concept itself), while at the same time, 2) reflecting on the way that participation unfolds across different participatory configurations. We invite researchers and practitioners from PD and HCI and fields in which information technology mediated participation is embedded (e.g. in political studies, urban planning, participatory arts, business, science and technology studies) to bring a plurality of perspectives and expertise related to participation.

Diálogos democráticos que fazem funcionar as cidades

The field of Strategic Design supports designers in researching and designing for the complexity of today’s cities by embracing the idea of strategic dialogue, in which designers align with different actors and their interests. In this article, we discuss how democratic dialogues – foregrounded in the Participatory Design (PD) tradition – play a role in complex urban design processes (i.e. ‘infrastructuring’) and entail different types of dialogues of which strategic dialogue is merely one. After framing Strategic Design and PD, we describe five designer roles and their associated dialogues. This description forms the basis of an exploratory typology of democratic dialogues that was applied and exemplified in a case study about a Living Lab in the neighbourhood of Genk. The Lab attempts to design alternative futures for work in the city together with citizens, public and private organisations. We claim that engaging with this typology allows designers to understand and design infrastructuring processes in the urban context and to open up different design dialogues and roles for discussion.Keywords: democratic dialogues, living lab, urban context, designer roles, infrastructuring.O campo do design estratégico apoia o trabalho de designers que pesquisam e projetam para a complexidade das cidades de hoje. De fato, ao abraçar a ideia do diálogo estratégico, os designers se alinham com diferentes atores e seus interesses. Neste artigo, discutimos como diálogos democráticos – que estão em primeiro plano na tradição do Design Participativo (PD) – são relevantes em processos complexos de design urbano (ou seja, de “infraestruturação”) e implicam diferentes tipos de diálogos, entre os quais o diálogo estratégico é apenas um. Depois de enquadrar Design Estratégico e PD, descrevemos cinco papéis do designer e seus relativos diálogos. Esta descrição constitui a base de uma tipologia exploratória de diálogos democráticos que foi aplicada e exemplificada em um estudo de caso sobre um Living Lab, no bairro de Genk. O Lab tenta projetar futuros alternativos para o trabalho na cidade, juntamente com os cidadãos, organizações públicas e privadas. Afirmamos que se envolver com esta tipologia permite que os designers entendam e projetem processos de infraestruturação no contexto urbano e se abram para diferentes diálogos de design e papéis para a discussão.Palavras-chave: diálogos democráticos, living lab, contexto urbano, papéis do designer, infraestruturação