Tom Critchley

Researching the Subcultural Politics of Transnational Participatory Design within Grassroots Humanitarian Projects

My research examines two grassroots humanitarian projects characterised by subcultural communities collaborating across borders: a radio project in Jordan and The Freedom Skatepark in Jamaica.

As a practice-based PhD, this research develops from my active participation and contributions to these projects through skateboarding-based, activist networks. In the thesis, I study the inception, co-design, participatory construction, governance structures, everyday use, and ongoing development of the projects over several years.

To do this, I adopt a methodological approach at an intersection of Research-through-Design and Participatory Action Research (PAR) that draws from ethnographic sensibilities of skateboarding culture. Across the thesis I review each project through Scandinavian Participatory Design (PD) approaches to infrastructuring that is guided by the subcultural politics of the DIY communities collaborating within each project.

This allows me to examine the challenges and possibilities of grassroots, activist networks in adopting participatory design approaches that are shaped by subcultural identities, politics and ethics. In doing so, I describe how groups tacitly navigate a problematised humanitarian/NGO field towards fostering transnational collaborations, social innovation, and place-based humanitarian design.

Supervisors

• Dr Tobie Kerridge
• Dr Liam Healy (University of Sheffield)