Design after things Article Swipe

The term 'ecologies' evokes either an environmental image of a biological community of interacting organisms or one adopted from start-up cultures of Silicon Valley. Between the two is co-creation: a concept that may be useful in helping navigate our way toward 'blossoming ecologies'. Defined as the interactive formation of value through the interactions between parties within a 'constellation', contemporary design researchers are highly sensitised to enabling multiple stakeholders within an ecosystem to find voice and agency. Using various participatory methods, designers are slowly flattening hierarchical research cultures that would have previously placed them above a community with a tendency to impose research challenges and extract data to support their assumptions. This chapter explores how and why approaches are much closer to a social science for design that identifies positionality within social and environmental ecosystems, supported by strong ethical guidelines that protect participants and researchers.