ABSTRACT
In this paper we examine challenges identified with participatory design research in the developing world and develop the postcolonial notion of cultural hybridity as a sensitizing concept. While participatory design intentionally addresses power relationships, its methodology does not to the same degree cover cultural power relationships, which extend beyond structural power and voice. The notion of cultural hybridity challenges the static cultural binary opposition between the self and the other, Western and non-Western, or the designer and the user---offering a more nuanced approach to understanding the malleable nature of culture. Drawing from our analysis of published literature in the participatory design community, we explore the complex relationship of participatory design to international development projects and introduce postcolonial cultural hybridity via postcolonial theory and its application within technology design thus far. Then, we examine how participatory approaches and cultural hybridity may interact in practice and conclude with a set of sensitizing insights and topics for further discussion in the participatory design community.
- Baaz, M. E. Introduction: African Identity and the Postcolonial, in Same and other: negotiating African identity in cultural production. Baaz, M. E. and Palmberg, M. (eds.). Elanders Gotab, Sweeden. 2001.Google Scholar
- Bhabha, H. K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, UK. 1994.Google Scholar
- Camara, S. B., Noœra, J. A., and Dunckley, P. L. Exploring the problem domain: a socio-technical ICT design for the developing world. Proc. PDC 2008, 154--157. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dearden, A. and Rizvi, H. Adapting Participatory and Agile Software Methods to Participatory Rural Development. Proc. PDC 2008, 221--225. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Dearden, A. and Rizvi, H. Participatory IT Design and Participatory Development: A comparative review. Proc. PDC 2008, 81--91. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Elovaara, P., Igira, F. T., and Mörtberg, C. Whose Participation? Whose Knowledge? --- Exploring PD in Tanzania-Zanzibar and Sweden. Proc. PDC 2006, 105--114. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Godjo, T. Scenarios to foster user participation in the design of small scale agricultural and food processing equipment in sub-Saharan Africa countries. Proc. PDC 2010, 247--250. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Irani, L. C. and Dourish, P. Postcolonial interculturality. Proc. IWIC 2009, 249--252. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Irini, L., Vertesi, J., Dourish, P., Philip, K., Grinter, R. E. Postcolonial Computing: A Lens on Design and Development. Proc. CHI 2010, 1311--1320. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Iversen, O. S., Halskov, K., and Leong, T. W. Rekindling Values in Participatory Design. Proc. PDC 2010, 91--100. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jules-Rosette, B. Terminal Signs: Computers and Social Change in Africa. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. 1990.Google Scholar
- Kensing, F. and Blomberg, J. Participatory Design: Issues and concerns. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1998, 7(3--4):167--185. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Merritt, S. and Bardzell, S. Postcolonial language and culture theory for HCI4D. Proc. CHI EA 2011, 1675--1680. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Muller, M. J. Participatory Design: The Third Space in HCI. In The Human---Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications, 2nd ed. Sears, A and Jacko, J. A. (eds), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, USA. 2008, 1061--1080. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Oyugi, C. Nocera, J. A., Dunckley, L., and Dray, S. The Challenges for Participatory Design in the Developing World. Proc. PDC 2008, 295--296. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Puri, S. K., Byrne, E., Nhampossa, J. L., and Quraishi, Z. B. Contextuality of Participation in IS Design: A Developing Country Perspective. Proc. PDC 2004, 42--52. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Winschiers-Theophilus, H., Chivuno-Kuria, S., Kapuire, G. K., Bidwell, N. J., and Blake, E. Being Participated -A Community Approach. Proc. PDC 2010, 1--10. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- Cultural hybridity in participatory design
Recommendations
Participatory design through a cultural lens: insights from postcolonial theory
PDC '14: Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - Volume 2This paper examines challenges faced in participatory design's confrontation with cultural complexity in contexts of intercultural encounter and transnational exchange. We argue that there is need for more elaborate approaches to culture, technology, ...
Participatory Design for Cultural Representation: A Cultural Transparency Perspective
14th IFIP TC 13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction --- INTERACT 2013 - Volume 8120Participatory design approaches are being increasingly employed for designing digital artefacts and information systems with and for local communities. These cases require a reconceptualization of PD processes to account for widened knowledge gaps ...
The culture question in participatory design
PDC '14: Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference: Short Papers, Industry Cases, Workshop Descriptions, Doctoral Consortium papers, and Keynote abstracts - Volume 2As efforts to promote Participatory Design (PD) outside of the Nordic region have grown, how to deal with culture has been perceived as an increasingly pressing issue. This paper explicates the cultural problems PD has had and presents alternative ...
Comments