Abstract
Children affected by cancer often require repeated hospitalisations. The impact of the material hospital environment on children's well-being receives growing attention across various disciplines. Yet, because of their ‘double vulnerability’ – being children and being ill – young people affected by cancer are less considered as direct research participants. We set out to put the experiences of these children at the centre of attention. To do justice to the complexity of their interactions with the material hospital environment, we brought together concepts and insights from childhood studies; scholarship in anthropology and philosophy; theories on materiality; and design research; and combined these with fieldwork in a children’s oncology ward and day-care ward. By interweaving different lines of inquiry, we exemplify how fusing theoretical and empirical work in a transdisciplinary way allows advancing both social sciences and design research and invites to adopt a nuanced way a seeing.
Keywords
design research, everyday practices, social and human sciences, transdisciplinarity
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.605
Citation
Tutenel, P., Ramaekers, S., and Heylighen, A. (2022) Weaving with design research to study children’s everyday practices in cancer care environments, in Lockton, D., Lenzi, S., Hekkert, P., Oak, A., Sádaba, J., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2022: Bilbao, 25 June - 3 July, Bilbao, Spain. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.605
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Weaving with design research to study children’s everyday practices in cancer care environments
Children affected by cancer often require repeated hospitalisations. The impact of the material hospital environment on children's well-being receives growing attention across various disciplines. Yet, because of their ‘double vulnerability’ – being children and being ill – young people affected by cancer are less considered as direct research participants. We set out to put the experiences of these children at the centre of attention. To do justice to the complexity of their interactions with the material hospital environment, we brought together concepts and insights from childhood studies; scholarship in anthropology and philosophy; theories on materiality; and design research; and combined these with fieldwork in a children’s oncology ward and day-care ward. By interweaving different lines of inquiry, we exemplify how fusing theoretical and empirical work in a transdisciplinary way allows advancing both social sciences and design research and invites to adopt a nuanced way a seeing.