Quasi-Quisling: co-design and the assembly of collaborateurs
Journal article, 2015

In recent years, various critiques of participative approaches to design processes have been presented. Participatory urban planning has been subject to a specific form of criticism, which posits that such processes are ‘post-political’, inasmuch as they merely legitimise the power and political agendas of elites. In reviewing a case of participatory urban planning in Gothenburg, Sweden, this article suggests that actor-network theory can be operationalised as an alternative means to account for democratic deficiencies of co-design practices. It thus uses the concept of translation to describe how the original interests of participants may be betrayed, as successive translations cause objectives to drift. It also suggests that the key agency in these unfortunate betrayals is not human, but emerges through the material modes of collaboration. The article thus endeavours to contribute to the debate on how co-design processes may become more effective means to democratise urban planning and design.

collaborateurs

Quisling

actor-network theory

post-politics

urban planning

translation

Author

Karl Palmås

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Entrepreneurship and Strategy

Otto Von Busch

The New School

CoDesign

1571-0882 (ISSN) 1745-3755 (eISSN)

Vol. 11 3-4 236-249

Subject Categories

Design

Civil Engineering

Sociology

Areas of Advance

Building Futures (2010-2018)

DOI

10.1080/15710882.2015.1081247

More information

Created

10/7/2017