Bioinclusive Collaborative and Participatory Design: A Conceptual Framework and a Research Agenda

Abstract Addressing the current unsustainability of socio-ecological-technological systems is urgently required. Unsustainability has been associated with the anthropocentric cultures of human societies that focus on their own needs while ignoring and belittling the needs of other species and natural systems. Design, including collaborative and participatory design (C&PD), is one of the multiple ways through which humans build solutions to satisfy their needs and wants in an anthropocentric manner. Through an integrative literature review of C&PD and a bioinclusive ethic (one of the non-anthropocentric frameworks in environmental ethics), this paper – a revised and expanded version of a conference paper previously published in Design Journal (2019) – develops a conceptual framework for bioinclusive C&PD rooted in a non-anthropocentric values base. It outlines twelve key principles for bioinclusive C&PD and proposes six avenues for further research.