Creating Spaces for Collaboration in Community Co-design

Creating Spaces for Collaboration in Community Co-design is primarily about how we create spaces for collaboration in co-design situations by examining the social environments supporting them. It explores the value of collaboration and the associated challenge of building mutual relationships between collaborators. Achieving collaboration in co-design is not easy as people need to understand each other, and develop rapport and trust. Authors Mirian Calvo and Maddy Sclater argue that developing mutual understanding and the co-creation of a hybrid language can be addressed by supporting informal-mutual learning in co-design. The paper looks at some social theories of learning and its entanglement with co-design situations and examines an action research project conducted in Scotland. The project, called Tackling Loneliness and Isolation, formed part of a larger research project called Leapfrog.

For those of us involved in collaborative design research, this paper may be of interest, and some concepts may apply to our practice. Calvo and Sclater invite us to open our eyes and consider the social environment as a source influencing the co-design practice and the emergence of informal-mutual learning.

Open access: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jade.12349