This workshop reflects on the role of participatory design and its community of facilitators and participants in addressing sustainable development in cities, regional centres and rural communities. The workshop will bring together academics, researchers and practitioners to share their experiences, expertise and visions for:

1. evolving participatory design approaches to move beyond the individual;
2. reinvigorating a stronger relationship between communities and institutions across different scales in order to re-politicise participatory design practices, projects and methods; and
3. making a concerted effort of contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We are specifically interested in ways of ‘designing smart’ by engaging and working with communities to address complex challenges, such as social inequality, economic disparity and environmental degradation to build more sustainable, resilient and socially ‘just’ communities.

The workshop will be run in conjunction with the Brisbane, Australia PDC Places event as a full day face-to-face workshop.

Audience and Theme 
The workshop invites contributions from academics, researchers, and practitioners interested in exploring the opportunities, challenges and complexities of designing smart for sustainable and resilient communities. We seek accounts of theoretical, situated, experimental and/or experiential work that leverages participatory and co-design processes with communities to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

We welcome both conceptual/theoretical as well as empirical/practical contributions that respond to one or more of the following areas of interest: 

• Recognising/designing for the complexity of communities and their entanglements with nature;
• Learning from the cultural, aesthetic and rich diversity inherent in communities maintaining positive relationships with the natural world;
• How participatory design approaches can inform more sustainable, resilient communities; 
• Addressing issues at the intersection of social and environmental sustainability.

Submission Process and Workshop Format
Submissions to this workshop will be in the form of an online registration questionnaire. Based on the responses and key themes identified, a series of activities and discussion points will be facilitated throughout the day. During the workshop, participants will contribute to small group discussion, as well as larger discussion and workshop activities.

A key component of the workshop will be a speculative design challenge to engage workshop participants in envisioning scenarios set in the future, that allow participants to move beyond their day-to-day experiences, discuss situations that are relevant to their SDG focus, share stories and knowledge around sustainable development, and express future needs, wants and aspirations around participatory design and decision making.

The overarching aim of the workshop is to foster creativity, inspiration and empathy by capturing how participatory methods and co-design can be applied for a collective cause.

Complete the online EOI questionnaire here.

Workshop Outcomes 
The aim of the workshop is to produce a publication plan based on the outcomes of the day. After the workshop, we will identify publication options and invite participants to contribute.

Important Dates

20 June 2022: Submission due . We are still accepting late submissions

4 July 2022: Notifications 

25 August 2022: Workshop day

Register for the workshop 
Registration is now open for the workshop. Please register here.

Previous Workshop
If you are interested in our previous workshop on Designing Smart you can access the information here.