Design principles for an inclusive participatory ecosystem
On Friday the Participatory City team published their Year 1 report for the Every One Every Day initiative in Barking and Dagenham. Made to Measure is packed with insights into an ongoing experiment to nurture a participatory ecosystem across a whole borough, supported by a platform made up of a collection of co-ordinated infrastructures and teams.
The idea of developing an approach based on ‘participatory culture’ started with the observation that some innovative citizen-led local projects were achieving inclusive participation.
- Made to Measure, p20
Tessy Britton, Chief Executive of Participatory City, had drawn together stories from such projects in Hand Made in 2010, inspiring a number of other people to edit collections of stories from the designers of imaginative projects in their own communities. These stories have been made available for us all to enjoy, along with suggestions of other inspiring books, on the Community Lover’s Guide website.
While testing an early prototype developed by Tessy for a generative collaborative platform which we attempted to build from a community centre on Wrens Nest housing estate, I was eager to learn from work she was leading in Lambeth, which is shared in Designed to Scale. In particular I have frequently returned to the design principles used in that work. They are presented engagingly with illustrations by Amber Anderson on pages 20 and 21 of The Illustrated Guide to Participatory City (see below). I highly recommend reading at least pages 16–19 for an appreciation of why these principles were developed.
It is helpful for CoLab Dudley’s current design phase to learn that the principles for an inclusive participatory ecosystem have since been added to.
The 14 design principles for an inclusive participatory ecosystem ensure that people can self-direct their involvement based on their situation, their health and their available time, all of which are always changing.
With a flexible, people-centred participation ecosystem of this kind on their doorstep, residents are more likely to get involved in projects and activities than if only high threshold opportunities were available, thus enabling people to benefit more by participating more frequently, albeit potentially at a less committed level.
These principles take a wide view of inclusivity, aiming for everyone to be able to participate, including identified groups of people often marginalised in society.
- Made to Measure, p27
In order to familiarise myself with the expanded set of principles, I’ve done a compare and contrast, with the 14 principles listed on page 27 of Made to Measure in bold below, and in square brackets a mapping back I’ve done to principles in the Illustrated Guide (in the images above).
- Tangible benefits to people [useful, with visible direct benefits to people and the neighbourhood]
- Many opportunities — wide variety [more opportunities | more variety]
- Low time and commitment [less time and commitment]
- From beginner to expert [more flexible]
- Everyone equal [more practical and social]
- 100% open — no stigma [more open]
- No or low cost [more open]
- Fostering inclusive culture [more collaborative culture, less confrontational or boring]
- Build projects with everyone [more opportunities to grow confidence]
- Nearby and accessible [closer to home]
- Promote directly and effectively [previously in design principles for the support platform (Set 2 in the Illustrated Guide)]
- Simple and straightforward
- Introduce or accompany
- Attracting talents not targeting
Our Lab Team and local people we’ve been co-designing projects and events with have been applying these principles. I recognise that we tend to draw on them when people’s ideas are veering away from them. We don’t have or present them as a list, they are very much bought to life through questions we ask (e.g. how might we ensure this is appropriate and simple for families and children to take part in?), tools we’ve created (e.g. project design canvases and packs) and conversations about what we’re trying to support and how we do that.
This year we’ve also started exploring permaculture design principles (see below, posts on this to follow), and we aim to develop a broader set of principles which guide our decisions and behaviours. It’s helpful at this moment to take a step back and consider how we might make the multitude of principles we use more explicit, without overwhelming people.
