Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the problems of participatory design -- The realist challenge : power and possibilities -- Betrayal : post-political participation -- Corruption : design and decay -- Cunning : mêtis and designerly statecraft -- Hypocrisy : of virtue and vice -- Closing propositions : after empathy, realdesign.

"Designers are often depicted as social change agents that serve the good in the world. Similarly, codesign tends to be described as a democratic mode of creativity that is somehow beyond reproach. But is change a virtue in itself, and do participatory practices always produce socially beneficial outcomes? Such questions are becoming more pressing as codesign has emerged as a dominant practice in planning and urban design, while also informing corporate management and public administration. In this book, Otto von Busch and Karl Palmås suggest that designers tend to over-emphasise the place of ideals in design, leaving them ill-equipped to deal with a social world of power-wielding and zero-sum games. Seeking to re-orient the concerns of the Scandinavian tradition of participatory design, they suggest that co-design processes are rife with betrayals, decay and corruption, and that designerly empathy has morphed into a new form of cunning statecraft. In putting forward Realdesign as an alternative conception of design practice, von Busch and Palmås ask: What hard lessons about the social must today's designers learn from realists like Machiavelli?"-- Provided by publisher.

EBSCOhost "EBSCO evaluates our products based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the related Section 508 and EN 301 549 regulations in the US and EU. Most EBSCO products are substantially conformant with WCAG 2.2 level AA." Source: https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/EBSCO-VPATs?language=en_US. Last accessed April 22, 2025.

Otto von Busch is Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design, The New School, New York. Karl Palms̄ is Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on February 02, 2023).