How can all residents feel heard in the city? What are the technologies and infrastructures that can enable equitable participation of migrant residents? Join us in a speculative workshop as a part of Communities & Technologies 2025, to imagine robust and dynamic future infrastructures for public participation. In this hands-on 4 hour workshop, we will co-design tangible representations of equitable and inclusive future infrastructures, institutions and technologies. To ground the workshop, we will showcase our ongoing research from Espoo and Malmö, and introduce our findings on institutioning migrant participation. To attend this workshop, we request participants to submit 2-4 cards using the template provided on our page, complemented by a short abstract (150 words) and an author bio. In the abstract, expand your thoughts on any of the following concepts: infrastructuring, institutioning, participatory design, e-governance, migration, and/or digital inclusion. Using the card template, articulate the challenges that restrict belonging of residents from your point of view (back of the card), and how it could change (front of the card). We especially encourage submissions related to public sector technologies and HCI work related to migrants. All submissions will be reviewed by the workshop’s co-organizers and later shared between selected participants. At least one author of each accepted submission must attend the workshop. All participants must register for both the workshop and for at least one day of the conference.
Format: Only in-person
Time: Half-day (4 hours)
Card template (Google slides) https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Iw3auhkHgAt-Bjnb6NVXND7U0ZmNEYvKEpJP-Kr4Xcw/
More information and registration to the conference: https://2025.comtech.community
Submission form: https://forms.gle/fcSUqcsxDSMyKsUN9
Contact person: Rūta Šerpytytė, ruta.serpytyte(at)tuni.fi
Organizers:
Rūta Šerpytytė is a design researcher based in Tampere University and Aalto University. With her background in service design, she is now interested in applying participatory design approaches for more inclusive public services and policymaking. She is exploring questions of migrant integration in relation to Finnish national identity.
Uttishta Varanasi is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University. His research focuses on the role of equity in building inclusive digital public services, using participatory methodologies to engage migrant communities in the design and development of public services. With expertise in interaction, service and participatory design, his previous research areas have included algorithmic literacy, sense-making during crises, and pluriversality in AI.
Alicia Smedberg is a senior lecturer and researcher in design at Malmö University. Her work explores collaborative and participatory approaches to public sector innovation, with a particular focus on climate transitions in urban contexts. She operates within interdisciplinary projects that bring together municipalities, civil society, and academia. With a background in design studies and science and technology studies (STS), her research interests span civic engagement, public sector digitalisation, and the role of design in capacity-building and systemic change.
Per Linde is a senior researcher in Interaction design at Malmö university. His research focus is on inclusive processes for different digitalisation efforts, especially in services for the public sector. He is also hosting commisioned education for city officers in design leadership in the public sector. With expertise in participatory design his research areas have also included environmental and social sustainability, IoT, Smart cities and interactive machine learning.
Download the full workshop proposal.
The workshop is part of the Trust-M project, which is funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland. We also want to acknowledge the centre for Imagining and Co-Creating Futures (Malmö University) for enabling this collaboration.