4.1 Critical Reflections on Systemic Design Participation: Ethics, Care and Justice

Corresponding Chairs

Cecilia Landa-Avila, Loughborough University

Josina Vink, AHO

Co-Chairs

Sine Celik, TU Delft

Simon Downs, Loughborough University

Peter Jones, Tecnologico de Monterrey

Abstract

Designing for complex systemic crises requires the participation of those who both affect and are affected by these systems. In contexts of interwoven crises, participation is not a discrete event or method, but a dynamic, ongoing meta-process. Each act of engagement reconfigures the system (crises), shaping power relations, influencing what is recognised as meaningful data, and informing co-created interventions.

Building on our DRS2022 and DRS2024 tracks, we invite contributions that examine how participation is conceived and practised within systemic design for complex challenges. Who is included or excluded? Who facilitates or controls participation? How do modes of participation and methods reflect, reinforce, or resist the systems they aim to transform? And how do these choices intersect with power, identity, and lived experience?

This track invites critical dialogue on ethics, justice, and care in participatory systemic design. We welcome contributions that:

• Explore tensions and resonances between care, justice, and ethics in systemic design;

• Frame participation as a systemic intervention and/or space of care; preventing harm and resisting extractive practices;

• Interrogate approaches to working with communities that have been systemically marginalised;

• Reflect on the act of (designers) “approaching” others as an inherently political and relational participatory act;

• Present cases that examine conditions for sustained participatory systemic change.

We welcome theoretical reflections, methodological papers, case studies, and critical accounts, including lessons from failure. Topics address complex contexts (e.g., disability justice, climate crisis, healthcare, governance, institutional resistance).

We welcome submissions in languages other than English, enabling richer expression, reducing masking and more authentic dialogue.

Keywords

Systemic Design, Participatory Design, Systems Thinking, Cybernetics

References

Blaser, M., & de la Cadena, M. (2017). The Uncommons: An Introduction. Anthropologica, 59(2), 185–193. https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.59.2.t01

Jones, P. (2018). Contexts of Co-creation: Designing with System Stakeholders. In: Jones, P., Kijima, K. (eds) Systemic Design. Translational Systems Sciences, vol 8. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55639-8_1

Mosleh, W. S., & Larsen, H. (2020). Exploring the complexity of participation. CoDesign, 17(4), 454–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2020.1789172

Sydelko, P., Midgley, G., & Espinosa, A. (2021). Designing interagency responses to wicked problems: Creating a common, cross-agency understanding. European Journal of Operational Research, 294(1), 250-263.

Vink, J. (2022). Designing for plurality in democracy by building reflexivity. The Pluralist, 17(1), 52–76. https://doi.org/10.5406/19446489.17.1.06