Design and Dissensus: Framing and Staging Participation in Design Research

Addressing social issues and operating in the public realm, contemporary design engages with the problematics of relating to more diverse people, groups and ‘others’ than those traditionally served by design. Tracing some related concerns within the early Participatory Design movements, we query approaches based on ‘consensus’ and explore an alternative based on ‘dissensus’, as theorized within political philosophy. To discuss critical-political aspects of participation in design, dissensus is a lens applied retrospectively to reflect on an example of our own practice-based research. Carried out with groups of women activists in Iran and Sweden, ‘Forms of Resistance’ was a project in which a design researcher engaged a series of socio-material activities to recognize the experiences and subjectivities of those otherwise excluded from a prevailing political order. Alternative communication and aesthetic practices were developed in response to issues of equity, power and difference within and across research situations and sites, which are discussed in relation to concepts of ‘indisciplinarity’ and ‘free translation’. This paper discusses alternative approaches to framing and staging participation in design, elucidating a series of terms and concepts relevant to social and critical practices of design and design research.