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Tying Knots: Participatory Infrastructuring at Work

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Abstract

Today, most design projects are infrastructuring projects, because they build on technologies, competencies and practices that already exist. While infrastructuring was originally seen as being full of conflicts and contradictions with what is already present, we find that many contemporary reports seem to mainly address participatory infrastructuring as horizontal co-design and local, mutual learning processes in which people attempt to make the most out of available technology. In this paper we expand our view of design activities in three dimensions: First, how participatory processes play out vertically in different political and practical arenas; second, on the back stage of design, the messy activities that occur before, between and after the participatory workshops. And third, on their reach; how they tie into existing networks across organizations, and how agency and initiatives become dispersed within these networks. To illustrate and discuss the process of participatory infrastructuring we use a case study from an educational context. This particular project contains a diverse set of design activities at many organizational levels revolving around technology, decision-making, competence-building, commitment and policy-making. The project highlights these complexities, and our discussions lead to a vocabulary for participatory infrastructuring that focuses on knotworking, rather than structure, and on both horizontal and vertical reach and sustainability. This vocabulary is grounded in the meeting of the literature on infrastructuring, participatory design, and activity theory, and leads to a revised understanding of, for example, learning and conflicts in participatory infrastructuring.

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Acknowledgements

This research study was supported by The Danish Industry Foundation as part of the Fablab@school.dk project, and by the AU interdisciplinary center PIT. The empirical studies were conducted in collaboration with our colleagues Rachel Charlotte Smith, Kasper Skov Christensen and Mikkel Hjorth. We also acknowledge the work of participants from Silkeborg, Vejle and Aarhus municipalities in the Fablab@school.dk project leading to the insights presented in the paper. Claus Bossen provided great comments on a previous version of the paper.

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  1. Center for Participatory IT, Aarhus University, Aabogade 34, 8200, Aarhus N, Denmark

    Susanne Bødker, Christian Dindler & Ole Sejer Iversen

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  1. Susanne Bødker
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Correspondence to Susanne Bødker.

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Bødker, S., Dindler, C. & Iversen, O.S. Tying Knots: Participatory Infrastructuring at Work. Comput Supported Coop Work 26, 245–273 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-017-9268-y

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