The role of qualitative research in designing for the public realm

Abstract

Designing for the (semi)public realm, like for public infrastructure, mobility, community-building or health care, involves a large complexity of human and non-human actors. Fields like Participatory Design (PD) and Co- Design have used and experimented with qualitative research methods to support the democratic involvement of this complexity of actors when designing for issues of public concern. In the seventies, PD researchers focussed a lot on using research as a vehicle to involve workers, management or policy in deciding how new technologies would be introduced in their work environments. Today, they have extended their activities beyond the workplace and have entered many more areas of public realm, within much less defined spatial and professional boundaries. This makes it challenging to make sense of who is concerned and thus need to be involved. This session reflects on how different scholars use and experiment with qualitative research methods to represent and bring together different voices in giving form to aspects that are part of the rich complexity of the public realm. Which methods of representation do you chose? How to decide when you have represented enough different perspectives on the issue? How do you represent the gaps (who/what you have left out)? Etc.