Participatory design as ethical practice – concepts, reality and conditions
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-11-2013-0044 |
| Date | 04 March 2014 |
| Pages | 10-13 |
| Published date | 04 March 2014 |
| Author | Bernd Carsten Stahl |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Participatory design
as ethical practice – concepts,
reality and conditions
Bernd Carsten Stahl
De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a re sponse to Christiansen’s paper ,
Ellen Christiansen (2014) “From ‘ethics of the eye’ to ‘ethics of the hand’ by collaborative
prototyping”, Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 12 No. 1.
Design/methodology/approach – Reflection and critique of Christiansen’s position.
Findings – The paper raises questions about the conceptual basis, the realisation of participation and
the conditions required for participative practice to be more broadly employed.
Originality/value – It is an original response.
Keywords Ethics, Philosophy,Computer ethics
Paper type Viewpoint
In her paper on “From ethics of the eye to ethics of the hand in participatory design and
development of digital technologies” Ellen Christiansen suggests that ethics can be
found in practice and gains relevance through interaction. Drawing on the idea of
mimesis as initially proposed by Aristotle and developed by Ricoeur she argues that
participative design allows for the collaborative development of ethical positions.
I am sympathetic to the idea and agree that participative methods may well hold the
key to identifying and dealing with many potential ethical consequences of ICT. In this
commentary I would nevertheless like to ask the following questions:
.To what degree can this approach address the breadth of issues covered by the
term ethics?
.If the claims put forward by Christiansen are correct, then why are participative
design practices not more widely established?
.Drawing on an alternative definition of ethics by Ricoeur, I ask which conditions
need to be fulfilled for participative design to be successful?
I will drawon the current discussion of responsibleresearch and innovation(RRI) in ICT to
argue that participation can only be one aspect of a broader space that will need to be
explored to ensure the acceptability and desirability of ICT design and the resulting
artefacts.
Participation and the concept of ethics
As indicated above, I shareChristiansen’s position that participation is the key to many
important aspectsof ethics in ICT. Ethical perceptions and positions are oftenembedded
in practices. Understanding such practices can require shared experiences as shown in
one of the examplesprovided by Christiansen. One problemwith this position, however,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
Received 11 November 2013
Revised 11 November 2013
Accepted 26 November 2013
Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society
Vol. 12 No. 1, 2014
pp. 10-13
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-11-2013-0044
JICES
12,1
10
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