The Corruption of Co-Design: Political and Social Conflicts in Participatory Design Thinking

Designers are often depicted as social change agents that serve the good in the world. Similarly, co-design tends to be described as a democratic mode of creativity that is somehow beyond reproach. But is change a virtue in itself, and do participatory practices always produce socially beneficial outcomes?

Such questions are becoming more pressing as co-design has emerged as a dominant practice in planning and urban design, while also informing corporate management and public administration. This book presents these emerging design-inspired practices, pointing to some of the threats and detrimental effects that may arise from their adoption. Departing from the idealism that tends to dominate the Scandinavian tradition on design, it instead proposes that concepts like participative design, social design and design thinking need to be analysed through a realist lens.

Using the notion of Realdesign, as a parallel to Realpolitik, the authors aim to highlight political, social and methodological obstacles when designers turn to design thinking, participation and living labs , with the hope of changing the world for the better. How does co-design sometimes tacitly further dominant agendas and systemic injustices, and what lessons about the social must today’s designers learn from realists?