Emerging Technologies and Alternative Futures

Abstract

Participatory Design’s core ambition is to democratise technological innovation to bring about alternative futures, underpinned by its strong value propositions of empowerment, social justice, and socio-ecological sustainability. As such, Participatory Design has always sought to engage with novel and emerging technologies within shifting societal challenges, continuously evolving its theory and practice to have an impact to this effect. This chapter provides a review of contemporary discourses between Participatory Design and current emerging technologies and develops stepping stones for future research and practice in the field. The chapter investigates the qualities of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), large-language models, and immersive media and how these are configured in ways that produce systems of old and new forms of oppression. The qualities identified relate to their scale, hyper-connectedness, and pervasiveness but also their increasing agential capabilities. Configured within the conditions of destabilised democracies, increasing social injustice, an out-of-bounds surveillance capitalism, and the climate emergency, we argue that Participatory Design needs to develop meaningful and effective participation around these socio-material assemblages to offer alternatives. The chapter surveys examples of Participatory Design’s engagement with such systems and technologies over the past decade, covering themes of platforms, civic technologies…