Post-participatory intentions in design for ecological citizenship and collective wellbeing

Located at the intersection of participatory design, futures thinking, and ecological citizenship, the Preferable Futures (PF) Deck is a wellbeing intervention that operates through physical, mental, social, and environmental space. The PF Deck spans physical, mental, social and environmental space, sitting at the intersection of participatory design, futures thinking and ecological citizenship.

The PF Deck is designed to cultivate reflection, conversation and imagination, and to inspire place-based action for individual and collective wellbeing for an ecologically ethical transition. Fundamental its ethos is a recognition that human and planetary health are tightly bound.

Tested through contexts like the London Design Festival, the Royal College of Art, and Falmouth University, the PF Deck has enabled values-based dialogue, systems literacy, and co-design of civic futures that are attuned to social and ecological flourishing.

The authors term this process “post-participatory intervention”: designers do not simply facilitate ‘good’ participation in predefined projects, but act as catalysts and conveners of ongoing, community-led practices that may continue and transform beyond the original design frame. The authors demonstrate how design interventions can function as an ecology and social well-being mediator. Their methodology sets out a post-participatory design process which combines a variety of knowledge frames to create an approach to designing for ecological and social wellbeing.

On a practical level, the PF Deck is a piloted toolkit with particular relevance for community organizers, educators, civil society organizations, local authorities, and policy-adjacent actors seeking to cultivate ecological citizenship in place-based ways. The deck enables the facilitation of community-led ecological and democratic transformation in the midst of climate, health, and social crises.