Cultural hybridity in participatory design
Abstract
In this paper we examine challenges identified with participatory design research in the developing world and develop the postcolonial notion of cultural hybridity as a sensitizing concept. While participatory design intentionally addresses power relationships, its methodology does not to the same degree cover cultural power relationships, which extend beyond structural power and voice. The notion of cultural hybridity challenges the static cultural binary opposition between the self and the other, Western and non-Western, or the designer and the user---offering a more nuanced approach to understanding the malleable nature of culture. Drawing from our analysis of published literature in the participatory design community, we explore the complex relationship of participatory design to international development projects and introduce postcolonial cultural hybridity via postcolonial theory and its application within technology design thus far. Then, we examine how participatory approaches and cultural hybridity may interact in practice and conclude with a set of sensitizing insights and topics for further discussion in the participatory design community.
