Making it work together can be challenging when various stakeholders are involved. Given the context of neighborhoods and cities specifically, stakeholders values and interests are not always aligned. In these settings, to construct long-term and sustaining participatory city-making projects, to make it work together, is demanding. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a design framework for inclusive and participatory city-making. This framework is inspired by the playable city perspective in that it endorses an open, exploratory, and interactive mindset of city actors. An extensive literature review on approaches taken for playful and participatory interventions in local communities provides the foundations for the framework. The review brings forward four pillars on which the framework is grounded and four activities for exploration of the design space for participatory city-making. A case study from The Hague (NL) is used to demonstrate how the framework can be applied to design and analyze processes in which city stakeholders together make it work. The case study analysis complements the framework with various research methods to support researchers, urban planners, and designers to engage with all city stakeholders to create playful and participatory interventions, which are inclusive and meaningful for the local community. The research contributions of this paper are the proposed framework and informed suggestions on how this framework in practice assists city stakeholders to together make it work. ... Read more

Rhythm is fundamental to life. Rhythm can be perceived in the movement of the sun, the moon and the stars. Rhythm makes our hearts tick and defines our breath, in and out. And even the smallest particle in a microbe is part of rhythmic movements. Rhythm in activities is important for culture, for religion, and for sports, schools and hospitals for example. Yet in social situations, social analyses and in social policymaking, rhythm is not considered as a space of analyses or a space of design. City Rhythm explores the potential of using rhythm analyses in the physical world and related data domain for enhancing social safety in neighbourhoods in the Netherlands. Rhythm in the physical world happens both in space as well as in time. Rhythm in data can connect to location (instead of persons), thus circumventing the issue of privacy. However, because the data addresses specific times and places, nonetheless the data still addresses significant social issues. ... Read more

In the horticultural fresh food supply chain network in the Netherlands, a crisis is emerging. The market is out of balance and many growers are facing bankruptcy, in the period of 2011–2013, 50% of the growers were not able to pay interest and redemption. Trust between participants in the supply chain network has decreased. This chapter presents the currently not established and identiies design requirements for new systems to address this challenge and provide directions for possible improvement. As a result, this chapter introduces the concept of SamenMarkt®, a participatory system in which multi-agent system technology enables distributed price negotiation, distribution and communication between producers, retailers and consumers. A SWOT analysis of the concept of SamenMarkt® is provided together with a research and development plan in which simulation and emulation create the basis for stakeholder- and participant involvement in the design process of a distributed digital market place. Further research aims to study how SamenMarkt® can provide a solution space for the emerging global food crises. At present, we are using agent-based modelling to simulate the present market and scenarios. The next step will be to build the actual agent-based platform for real-time negotiations and business intelligence. ... Read more

This chapter elaborates on design for the value of presence. As digital technologies
have made it possible for us to connect to each other at a speed and scale
that is unprecedented, presence is acquiring many new stances. The distinctions
between being there (in virtual worlds), being here (making the being there
available here), and the merging realities of these two are essential to the notion
of presence. Understanding the essence of presence is the focus of current presence
research to which many disciplines contribute, including computer
science, artificial intelligence, artistic research, social science, and neurobiology.
The definition of presence used in this chapter is “steering towards well-being
and survival,” and this definition introduces a neurobiological perspective on
presence fundamental to the approach on which this chapter focuses. This
perspective recognizes the choices and trade-offs involved in presence design.
Presence design is a meta-design, which creates the context for human experience
to emerge. Presence as a value for design can be a design requirement,
a factor of analysis, and a key value in a process of Design for Values.
This chapter discusses a number of analytical and design frameworks for
constructing and deconstructing presence design. Acknowledging that presence
is a fuzzy concept and that a variety of open issues can be identified, presence as
a value for design is fundamental for human beings to accept responsibility in
complex environments. Further research will need to address how we, as human
beings, change and how our sense of presence changes, as a result of living in a
network society with ubiquitous technology and all pervasive media being part
of our day-to-day lives. ... Read more