Abstract
This paper explores how care ethics, particularly Joan Tronto’s five dimensions of care, can enrich systemic design practices by embedding ethical and political reflections into co-design processes. The paper uses Tronto's framework as an ethical guide through the systemic design methodology of Jones and Van Ael and a retrospective case study involving children with incarcerated parents. It highlights how care ethics can guide designers in navigating complex relational dynamics, redistributing power, and fostering trust and responsiveness in co-creative processes. The study emphasizes the importance of designer positionality, expectation management, and co-ownership, especially when working with vulnerable groups. Ultimately, it proposes systemic design as a practice of care, offering conceptual foundations for more equitable and context-sensitive design interventions.
Keywords
systemic design, care ethics, co-creation, case study
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.339
Citation
Gruyters, M., Kenis, K., Dewit, I., and Jacoby, A. (2026) Care-full systems: Applying Tronto’s ethics of care into systemic design processes, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.339
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Care-full systems: Applying Tronto’s ethics of care into systemic design processes
This paper explores how care ethics, particularly Joan Tronto’s five dimensions of care, can enrich systemic design practices by embedding ethical and political reflections into co-design processes. The paper uses Tronto's framework as an ethical guide through the systemic design methodology of Jones and Van Ael and a retrospective case study involving children with incarcerated parents. It highlights how care ethics can guide designers in navigating complex relational dynamics, redistributing power, and fostering trust and responsiveness in co-creative processes. The study emphasizes the importance of designer positionality, expectation management, and co-ownership, especially when working with vulnerable groups. Ultimately, it proposes systemic design as a practice of care, offering conceptual foundations for more equitable and context-sensitive design interventions.