The issue of participation is revitalised in design and design research, and a second generation of designers is taking up the challenge to open up the design process for engagements and dialogue with people outside the design community. Large companies deeply embedded in technological innovation employ anthropologists and designers to study future trends through an active involvement with people who may one day be future users.

Young designers are playing with the opportunities to consciously allow for and encourage people to augment and change what was previously thought of as the finished design. For the title of this special issue, we have chosen the plural: design participation(-s). With this we want to propose that the present interest in participation is diverse and multidirectional. It is driven by a genuine curiosity toward peoples' imaginative and intangible aspirations and motivations, making the issue of participation a concern for designers as such.

Special Issue Authors: Thomas Binder; Eva Brandt; Judith Gregory