Open Access: PDF
Hillgren, Per-Anders. 2013. “Participatory design for social and public innovation: Living Labs as spaces for agonistic experiments and friendly hacking”. In Public and collaborative: Exploring the intersection of design, social innovation and public policy, edited by Ezio Manzini and Eduardo Staszowski, 75-88. DESIS Network.
ABSTRACT – This article will present some learning’s and reflection on what role we as a design school can take when running a DESIS lab where we approach several of the urgent challenges that face society today. First I will introduce the base for our work, which takes place in the intersection between social innovation, participatory design and living labs. Then I will give four examples of what we call agonistic small-scale experiments, where we not only explore potential solutions but also try to raise questions and dilemmas and allow controversies to reside side by side. Finally I will present four sets of reflections from what we learned so far where I more deeply discuss the implications of doing agonistic experiments. I will also reflect on how we recently have tried to build alliances with other research disciplines and civil servants to perform ’friendly hacking’. A strategy where we through policy work push the boundaries of the lab and expand the potential impact of our activities.
ABOUT THE BOOK – Public and Collaborative, published by the DESIS (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) network, reflects on the efforts of DESIS Labs in Europe and North America. From a critical perspective, the book presents the Labs’ projects and activities. The book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs 3.0 license.
Read more
– Malmö University DESIS Lab
– Living Lab the Neighbourhood
– About the book on Forum for Social Innovation Sweden
Featured image is from Public and Collborative, CC:BY-NC-ND.