This article makes three contributions to participatory design (PD) research and practice with vulnerable groups: 1) a framework for understanding stakeholder engagement over the course of a PD project; 2) approaches to making user engagement and PD activities more inclusive; and 3) an analysis of how the design and power dynamics of PD projects affect vulnerable groups’ participation. A map of engagement is developed to evaluate stakeholder involvement from initial problem definition to design outcome. The map is applied to three projects aimed at increasing inclusion of vulnerable groups in the planning of public sector services. The first looks at codesign activities to support decision-making in the context of intellectual disabilities; the second looks at culturally diverse youth navigating crisis without adequate assistance from public services; and the third examines nursing students adapting to work in the health sector without accommodations for learning disabilities. Comparing the projects reveals patterns in project planning and execution, and in stakeholder relationships. The article analyses how users are defined, engaged and supported in PD; how proxies shape vulnerable groups’ involvement and PD projects as a whole; and opportunities for greater inclusion when the entire PD project is taken into account.

This study examines motivations, definitions, methods and challenges of evaluating the social impacts of smart city technologies and services. It outlines concepts of social impact assessment and discusses how social impact has been included in smart city evaluation frameworks. Thematic analysis is used to investigate how social impact is addressed in eight smart city projects that prioritise human-centred design across a variety of contexts and development phases, from design research and prototyping to completed and speculative projects. These projects are notable for their emphasis on human, organisational and natural stakeholders; inclusion, participation and empowerment; new methods of citizen engagement; and relationships between sustainability and social impact. At the same time, there are gaps in the evaluation of social impact in both the smart city indexes and the eight projects. Based on our analysis, we contend that more coherent, consistent and analytical approaches are needed to build narratives of change and to comprehend impacts before, during and after smart city projects. We propose criteria for social impact evaluation in smart cities and identify new directions for research. This is of interest for smart city developers, researchers, funders and policymakers establishing protocols and frameworks for evaluation, particularly as smart city concepts and complex technologies evolve in the context of equitable and sustainable development.

In this paper, we present an online workshop that uses making as a strategy to reveal new insights and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. The paper is intended to start conversations about different forms of material engagement in learning environments, and how artists and designers can use material approaches to respond to complex challenges, such as care. Our aim for this material-led workshop was to encourage students to engage with care as a topic of critical analysis by adopting making as a way to think about this abstract concept. As educators, we also experimented with making as a strategy to create a caring learning environment. Our analysis identified that the workshop fostered inclusive collaboration, sparked stimulating conversations, connected theory and practice, and created experiences and spaces of care. We discuss our findings based on three categories: care as a subject of art and design education, care through teaching and care through making. We also consider how the workshop might be different in physical spaces and propose aspects that we can incorporate in future iterations, such as having more time to learn about the objects created. The workshop can serve as a model and be applied to explore other abstract concepts in various contexts and is relevant to professionals interested in making and applying similar approaches in their practice.

This chapter explores design’s role in addressing social sustainability in global production networks (GPNs). Using the concept of geographies of responsibility, the chapter argues that actors throughout supply chains are interdependent, their relationships embodied in the products, processes and systems that designers help to create. However, for designers in post-industrial economies, it can be challenging to identify how their decisions affect the social sustainability of those further upstream. Distant manufacturing locations and stakeholders obscured by complex, multitier supply chains present conditions seemingly beyond design’s control. Most human-centred design has focused on clients and consumers, overlooking those employed elsewhere in resource extraction, manufacturing, distribution and disposal. Social design practices could help to address this gap. Over the past decades, a rich body of work has emerged in participatory design, design for the pluriverse and design for social sustainability (D4SS). Design expertise exists in sustainable production and social sustainability, but these have yet to be combined in a meaningful way. Examples of designers acting inside, outside and alongside industry to promote social sustainability in GPNs raise questions about the limitations and opportunities for design in this context. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

As manufacturing has become globally fragmented, so too has the work of design. Complex supply chains conceal sources of creativity and innovation, posing new challenges for researching design history. There is little understanding of how the globalization of manufacturing in the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries has affected design practice or how design authorship might be identified in mass-produced objects. This case study follows a pair of steel-toed boots named Vanessa from concept through design, development, and production, moving from Canada to Italy, Mexico, and beyond. It maps components, equipment, and expertise, making it possible to trace sources and relationships of design. Analysis reveals how the boots reflect shifts in global trade and the concentration of knowledge and resources in new locations. It also shows how the globalization of production has influenced the role of the product designer who acts as intermediary within transnational networks, combining predesigned components and practices from around the world. The manufacturer, Mellow Walk, has experienced the transition from a regional manufacturing economy to one that is globally integrated. The company was founded in the 1990s when most Canadian footwear factories had closed due to global competition. It is unique as the last fully integrated footwear factory in Ontario, meaning that management, design, production, sales, and shipping happen under one roof. Mellow Walk nevertheless depends on international suppliers and, in this sense, represents many other footwear brands around the world.