Ruut Tikkanen

Co-design has decades of history in different disciplines and traditions. Its relevance has been recognised in multiple domains, including in the promotion of gender equality in higher education institutions, while its use in this context still remains quite limited, and not embracing its full potential. This chapter discusses the divergent origins of co-design and elaborates on how it has been co-cultivated for addressing gender equality in higher education institutions in the RESET project. The co-cultivation has derived inspiration from traditions such as participatory design, critical design, and speculative design, as well as from futures-making and anticipation traditions. In the empirical part, we describe the design research relying on qualitative data collection and analysis methods that we have carried out. Several co-design methods have been empirically explored in a participatory manner in the context of the promotion of gender equality in higher education institutions. Empirical co-design experiences are presented, as well as co-design principles aimed at serving gender equality work. The principles emphasise: 1) providing a safe place to explore and articulate controversial and power-laden topics in co-design; 2) encouragement for critique, questioning, and exploring alternative futures, values, and agendas in co-design; 3) fostering broad, inclusive, and genuine participation in co-design; and 4) advocacy of participatory infrastructuring for sustained social change in co-design. These principles provide a novel contribution not yet elaborated in the extant co-design literature.

We share an emergent repository of nature-entangled methods-to-be shared, experimented with, and discussed during a conference workshop. We present them in-use, as they are in formation. We do not seek to theorise or even fully articulate these methods-to-be. Rather, to make them approachable and actionable for others by showing them not fully polished. By doing this, we advocate for increased transparency in the difficulties of creating new methods, techniques, tools, and approaches. Our contribution is threefold: we provide 1) an annotated portfolio of methods-to-be; 2) illustrative examples of how cross-pollination of these methods can enrich their situated use; and 3) a discussion of ways to further articulate the methods and deepen reflection on their roles in nature-entangled design processes.

Nature and the natural world are important for the well-being of humans, a position that has been acknowledged in research within various disciplines. Research has also shown humans are alienated from nature, which is of great concern, especially for children, whose well-being should be society's top priority. Child–computer interaction (CCI) research is among the disciplines that should examine nature and natural rhythm in children's lives from the perspective of digital technology. We build a multidisciplinary theoretical framework on nature and natural rhythm with which to review the extant CCI literature. We discuss the state of the art and identify paths for future work. We show that in CCI research, being in nature and catering to nature have been addressed, while less attention has been paid to children being part of nature and its natural rhythm. We discuss how CCI research and design can acknowledge and better support such aspects.