We interviewed Dr Raquel Pelta, Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and Design in the Fine Arts Faculty at the University of Barcelona.

We spoke to her about co-design, also known as participatory design, and how this discipline can help us find solutions to society’s challenges and problems.

First of all, what exactly is co-design?

Broadly speaking, it’s defined as a collective creation process that includes end users or stakeholders actively and creatively in the process of designing a product, space or service. These users work with professional designers and other experts throughout the entire process with the goal of finding the best solutions to their needs and/or problems.

So, it aims to foster people’s creativity.

Right. It’s a democratic approach based on the idea that everyone is creative and an expert in their own experiences, and it entails a commitment to them and to the community. It’s a methodology that is equipped with a series of design techniques and tools (although they also come from other disciplines, like anthropology and sociology) used to achieve real participation, working with individuals, groups and communities.

What can this methodology be used for?

Co-design offers many possibilities when dealing with complex social problems and creating services that better meet users’ needs because it promotes collaboration among different groups of people and different parties involved.

How is co-design related to social work?

Co-design can serve as a bridge between design and social work, in part because their underpinnings largely match; they include finding solutions for people, boosting their self-esteem, creating bonds between them and getting them to participate in group life. On the other hand, social capital and empowerment are core concepts in co-design, just as they are in social work, which seeks positive approaches —instead of focusing on deficits— in order to provide people with a greater degree of autonomy and make it more likely for them to be successful in their lives.

Co-design and social work are two disciplines in which research and practice go hand in hand in professional work. But the most important thing they share is that they exist for the subject. In fact, the people-centred social intervention perspective and the people-centred design perspective are very closely related. Social work (just like design) is constantly seeking new instruments that enable it to better handle the challenges of a society in which social inequalities are only increasing. And co-design can clearly be one of these new instruments.

Could you give us an example of a project in which co-design has been used successfully?

My projects have always focused on trying to figure out how co-design can be applied socially, on understanding its limits and demonstrating its benefits. I have partnered with a social organisation in Barcelona on social-educational intervention projects with vulnerable youths in the Raval and La Mina neighbourhoods by holding co-design workshops. It was a way to work on self-esteem, empowerment, group cohesion and problem-solving skills. The workshops helped to create bonds among the young people, detect personal problems and identify skills that if properly nurtured could serve as the foundation for the educators to give them suitable personal and professional advice.

You also focus on training social workers and other public-sector employees.

Yes, I have been training them for years so they can apply co-design as a methodology both in their everyday jobs on the team and in social innovation projects. The goal is also for them to understand the need to include design professionals in the social projects they undertake and the benefits of doing this. I think it’s yet another chance to look into the possibilities and impact of co-design in the social sector.

How do you adapt your co-design training to social workers in different cultural and geographic settings, like Madrid, Cuenca, Barcelona and Lisbon?

Any co-design process always has to be adapted. Each one is unique. Before carrying it out, you have to know who the participants are and what their goals are. So you have to design it prior to each situation by investigating and determining which tools are the best according to the participants’ needs and characteristics, the problems to be solved, the goals to be achieved, etc. On the other hand, co-design is an iterative process in which each phase is planned based on the results from the participants’ contribution in the previous stage.

What are the key skills you believe are essential for social workers who want to include co-design in their practices?

Due to the training they have received, social work professionals already have many of the skills needed to include co-design in their practice: empathy, an ability to reflect and creativity. They use inclusive thinking, appreciate the different aspects of a complex problem and, just like designers, have the ability to explore beyond the boundaries of perceived phenomena.

Including co-design in their interventions may help them because of its many benefits. Co-design experiences show that it is an effective perspective that can yield lasting results, always depending on the type of project. It is an approach involving development and change that transforms not only environments or artefacts but also people, organisations and communities as they participate, and this is identical to any undertaking in social work.

More about… Raquel Pelta

The best invention in history?

Penicillin.

What would you like to see in the future?

Something very utopian: the disappearance of social inequality.

One future advance that you fear?

Artificial intelligence if it’s not used to help humanity advance in a positive direction.

A role model?

The social reformer Jane Addams.

What could be done to achieve equality between men and women?

Educate in equality and continue to promote policies aimed at achieving it.

The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation is important because…

Because it is a means of connecting university knowledge with society.