Over the past three decades, the Participatory Design Community has been at the forefront of research and change initiatives aimed at promoting democratic values and allowing organizations and societies to develop based on a broad set of opinions and stakeholders.

The emerging Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have played a vital role in both supporting and challenging participatory design initiatives. They offer powerful tools for change, but also present significant obstacles to maintaining democratic values. The arenas around this duality of ICT potentials have changed and diversified over time.

In many regions of the world, access to participation infrastructures – both technological and non-technological – continues to be a challenge. In other regions, issues of investment in and success with change initiatives are tightly connected with living socio-technical infrastructures, ranging from Open-Source-Platforms to Makerspaces to Social Media.

The theme of the conference is “Connecting beyond participation: reaching out.” We aim to explore how participatory design can bridge the gap between different stakeholders and communities, and promote meaningful and sustainable change.