Lost in translation: a critical analysis of actors, artifacts, agendas, and arenas in participatory design

As computer technologies start to permeate the everyday activities of a continuously growing population, social and technical as well as political and legal issues will surface. Participatory design is asked to take a more critical view of participation, design, technology, and the arenas in which the network of actors and artifacts dialectically construct the social orders. This paper has a much more modest aim of that to contribute the discussion of participation and design in part by a more in-depth understanding of the translation problem among different actors who directly participate in participatory design activities. This problem takes place when different actors come to participate in the design activities and when they are to decide whether to adopt and use a designed artifact. By analyzing a multi-year-long effort to understand and provide social and technical means for the use of educational computer technologies in special education, this paper aims to shed new light on t...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: PDC
• Authors: Rogério De Paula
• Keywords: Participatory Design, PDC 2004, Social, Social Orders, Theoretical Computer Science