Political Frameworks of Design & Participation

Drawing upon material from two case-studies in Germany and Austria, we analyse the political and cultural regimes into which design and participation are embedded. Three arenas for participation are distinguished: Designing work-designing systems; Designing organisational frameworks for action; Designing the industrial relations context. Our case analysis focuses on the evolving network of actors and intermediaries who in various ways contribute to work and systems design; on the influence of the political culture and the legal framework on how legitimate agenda are created and the arenas for action are defined; and on the relations between systems design and other agenda (such as organisational development, collective bargaining). Our case studies point at the limitations to participation in fragmented political cultures. They call attention to the importance of understanding agenda setting. Each arena of action has its own set of legitimate agenda, from questions of user interface design to quality of working life and privacy issues. Participation in design needs powerful agenda which can be established in all arenas and, notably, be translated into work and design questions whose relevance for everyday work with a computer system are obvious to users.