Peace, dialogue, coexistence
Designing for living together
In a world marked by disconnections, fragmentations, and conflicts, more than ever, the urgency of participatory design is to become an agent of peace, dialogue and coexistence. How can participatory design facilitate living together?
PDC 2026 will be an opportunity to discuss research and applied programs, projects, and initiatives where participatory design and co-design have been used to foster dialogue, to create or reconcile communities, to give voice to people or entities who have not voice, to nurture solidarity, to negotiate, to create contexts of conviviality, to tackle even the unmanageable issue of wars and conflicts due to societal, political, economic and climate reasons.
Challenges design must face are related to take care of the others and the planet, counteract marginalisation, prevent conflicts, alleviate the consequences of any conflictual circumstance, and rebuild conditions of peace and dialogue. In all situations, peace is not a product, but a process: to contribute meaningfully, participatory design must first understand why a community struggles to live in peace and focus on how to reactivate communities and heal conflict damages for individuals and the social fabric of a territory.
In addressing the evolving landscape of participatory design, the role of digital technologies is critical: understanding, designing, and using digital technologies for peace, dialogue, and co-existence today is to locate and mobilize diverse agencies. This involves recognizing the interconnectedness of all entities— human, non-human, and technological—and learning how to harness and govern our interdependencies rather than corralling complexity. Digital technologies are not merely tools for individual or human-centric use, but integral to the fabric of a global and interspecies society.
Engaging with peace and conflict means going to the origins of participatory design as a democratic tool for conflict mitigation and resolution. PDC 2026 will explore its political dimension, investigating how participatory processes can foster peacebuilding, social justice, and transformative change.
CONTRIBUTION
Types
The conference offers multiple venues for contributions, including Full Papers, Exploratory Papers, Workshops, a Doctoral Colloquium, and Situated Actions (an interactive exhibition format). The 2026 will also host a number of PDC Places (smaller in-person events and activities running in different locations around the world – with each Place shaped and organised by local PD researchers and practitioners).
We will release more information about PDC Places and the calls for Exploratory Papers, Workshops, the PhD Colloquium, and Situated Actions later in early 2025.
CONFERENCE
Themes
Submissions can be submitted on any topic or issue of relevance to participatory design theory, practice or methods – however, PDC 2026 is especially interested in soliciting submissions that relate to the conference themes, including:
Explore the interplay between global systems and local experiences, with a critical lens on how globalization impacts peacebuilding efforts and fosters resistance and/or cooperation at a local level. Participatory design can contribute to conflict resolution, emphasizing the importance of inclusive strategies that honour local knowledge and cultural practices as tools for fostering coexistence.
Reflect on AI, democracy and participation: how to frame participatory conversations and decision-making processes at different levels of governance from neighbourhoods to cities, from national and international levels to allow stakeholders inclusion in the transformations triggered by the digital and green transitions.
Discuss participatory approaches to embrace diverse voices, fostering inclusion, equity, and resilience by centring marginalized communities in systemic, and long-term transformations.
Analyse the relevance of design research for participatory policymaking, focusing on how design can support sustainable transitions through collaborative decision-making, inclusive policy frameworks, and prototyping systemic interventions.
Understand how design can contribute to the civic participation and deliberative democracy processes that are being deployed to address the social, technical and political challenges raised by the climate crisis.
Rethink AI in more-than-human terms: explore how technology can foster new modes of attunement, collaboration, and survival by embracing human, machine, and ecological interdependence.
Incorporate multispecies perspectives, critically exploring the implications of participation, consent, cohabitation and interdependence in a more-than-human world.
INTRODUCING
Conversations
PDC 2026 is structured around Conversations.
Conversations are intended as in-depth and deep dialogues in which full paper presentations, in plenary sessions, will be combined to exploratory papers and local practices, according to a correspondence of themes. The purpose is to create a variety of conversational contexts centred on selected contributions and enriched by several discussants. The call for Full Papers is first issued, followed by the call for Exploratory Papers.
PDC: PEACE, DIALOGUE, COEXISTENCE
Designing for living together.
The Participatory Design Conference 2026.
WHERE
Campus Bovisa Durando
Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Italy
