TY - JOUR

T1 - Engaging people with dementia in designing playful and creative practices

T2 - Co-design or co-creation?

AU - Tsekleves, Emmanouil

AU - Bingley, Amanda Faith

AU - Lujan Escalante, Male

AU - Gradinar, Adrian Ioan

N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Dementia, 19 (3), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Dementia page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/dem on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

PY - 2020/4/1

Y1 - 2020/4/1

N2 - Stimulating active, social interactions for people with dementia is an important and timely chal- lenge that merits continuing attention in design research. The idea of using participatory co-design to engage people with dementia is attracting increased interest. In this paper, we draw on our qualitative study that used a playful, participatory arts approach to explore the ways co-design could be implemented in a group of 12 people with dementia and their carers, and developed practical recommendations, in the form of a set of playing cards, for other researchers and caregivers to work in similar ways. The emphasis is on the value of play and playfulness, providing a ‘magic circle’ (Huizinga, 1955) that fosters the required conditions for a co-creative, co-design space. This aims to encourage social interaction between people with dementia, to stimulate imagination and creativity; and engage even the most the reticent, less confident members. Our observations, however, suggest that the exact notion and nature of co-design within the context of working with people with dementia is unclear. We critically explore wheth- er such participatory creative practices that engage people with dementia can be considered as purely co-design. In conclusion, we argue that such interaction is better described as co-creation and that this definition can still embrace considerable contribution and involvement by people with dementia in a co-design process.

AB - Stimulating active, social interactions for people with dementia is an important and timely chal- lenge that merits continuing attention in design research. The idea of using participatory co-design to engage people with dementia is attracting increased interest. In this paper, we draw on our qualitative study that used a playful, participatory arts approach to explore the ways co-design could be implemented in a group of 12 people with dementia and their carers, and developed practical recommendations, in the form of a set of playing cards, for other researchers and caregivers to work in similar ways. The emphasis is on the value of play and playfulness, providing a ‘magic circle’ (Huizinga, 1955) that fosters the required conditions for a co-creative, co-design space. This aims to encourage social interaction between people with dementia, to stimulate imagination and creativity; and engage even the most the reticent, less confident members. Our observations, however, suggest that the exact notion and nature of co-design within the context of working with people with dementia is unclear. We critically explore wheth- er such participatory creative practices that engage people with dementia can be considered as purely co-design. In conclusion, we argue that such interaction is better described as co-creation and that this definition can still embrace considerable contribution and involvement by people with dementia in a co-design process.

KW - co-design

KW - co-creation

KW - participatory design

KW - playfulness

KW - dementia

KW - social interactions

U2 - 10.1177/1471301218791692

DO - 10.1177/1471301218791692

M3 - Journal article

VL - 19

SP - 915

EP - 931

JO - Dementia

JF - Dementia

SN - 1471-3012

IS - 3

ER -