Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Participatory Design

Amidst growing awareness of the need for future making projects that decentre the role of top-down and profit-driven institutions, this Handbook offers an update on the premises and practices of participatory design. Designing here is not a goal or artifact-oriented task to be completed, but ongoing engagement in the resource-differentiated locations, contested politics, relations, knowledges, and collective practices through which transformative possibilities are materialized. As reflected in these writings, the field itself is opening to include sites of design innovation beyond the parochial boundaries of the hyper-developed world, including pluriversal social movements aimed at unsettling, reparation, transition, and regeneration. As a sign of the field's maturity, and consistent with its commitment to learning in doing, these chapters offer more in the way of critical reflection on troubles encountered than on their neat resolution. It is precisely for this reason that the Handbook will be an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers, students, and practitioners interested in the history and present of the field, as well as those already engaged in projects of participatory design who are looking for renewed inspiration.

Lucy Suchman, Professor Emerita of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK