Georgina Freeman, Juan de la Rosa, Juan P. Velásquez, Mexhid Ferati, and Sofia Backåberg
Participatory design (PD) has long navigated tensions that shape how inclusion, agency, and democracy are enacted in practice. These tensions are not merely practical frictions; they are manifestations of the epistemic and methodological pluralism that characterises design practice across disciplines, cultures, and contexts. As PD methods become central to different forms of design research—from health and policy to digital inclusion and accessibility—these tensions intensify and transform. Where is the control and the power in the design process when participation becomes a tool of validation? How does participation look in the face of individual rights or interests or in connection with large-scale policies? This workshop invites systemic designers, participatory design researchers, and practitioners to collaboratively map the tensions and thresholds of participation in PD practice using Cartographic Mapping and World Café methods. Connecting to RSD15’s theme of Systemic Design Pluralism, we treat tensions not as dysfunctions to resolve, but as productive expressions of multiple, coexisting ways of knowing and practising design. The workshop will produce a collectively authored visual systemic map of tensions across participatory design domains and lay the groundwork for a joint publication.
Keywords: participatory design, systemic design, epistemic pluralism, systemic mapping, complexity