In this talk, Markussen will discuss how a look into experiments in design activism may be helpful for resolving current disagreements about the use of participatory approaches in design research. Recently, critique has been voiced against the ways in which participation is typically understood and practiced. Too often, participatory approaches in design are based upon ideals of consensual decision-making and the equal sharing of power and control, while activist approaches are characterised as being less democratic, too controlled and reluctant to give up authorship.

Taking experiments from his own research as a point of departure, Markussen discuss how design activism opens up for a more nuanced understanding of participation. More specifically, he argues that a design activist approach to participation may in some cases be preferred over user-driven approaches and may even enhance forms of democracy for users that would otherwise be repressed. Not all people are able to participate. Nor would it be meaningful. There’s always the need to ask what is participation good for, who should participate and when? These questions necessarily calls for increasing awareness of the politics of participation referring to the ideologies underlying design approaches and implicitly valuing how power and control should be distributed and for what purpose.