Keeping control over time

Participatory Design have since the beginning entailed discussions of democracy. In this talk I briefly outline the developments from the 1970s and the 1980s, with a strong focus on the role of trade unions, to the 2010s where focus often is on developing “great systems”. After discussing some pros and cons of these developments I present a strategy that supplements PD with a new focus on control over the product. Thus the initial focus is not on a PD process to develop a great system, but on setting up structures for democratic control of ongoing development over time.