Abstract
Using Fayetteville, Arkansas, as a primary case study, this paper frames city council meetings as dynamic systems of discourse, where a citizen’s ability to contribute is shaped by the design of institutional environments and mediating artifacts. Drawing on field studies and participatory design methods, the author dissects how the design of such meetings supports and hinders equitable participation. To address these challenges, the author turns to another structured form of discourse: the design critique. Contemporary critique practices offer participatory frameworks for exchanging feedback that redistribute power and invite diverse perspectives. Building on these parallels, the author prototypes a critique-inspired, multimodal system of design interventions that add flexible, informal, and asynchronous channels for citizen engagement. While grounded in a U.S. municipal context, the resulting framework proposes adaptable methods for enhancing participatory governance and transparent citizen–government communication across public sector settings globally.
Keywords
Participatory Governance, Public Discourse, Mediating Artifacts, Design Critique
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2382
Citation
Schuerman, P. (2026) From critique to city council: A design framework for inclusive public discourse, 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.2026.2382
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
From critique to city council: A design framework for inclusive public discourse
Using Fayetteville, Arkansas, as a primary case study, this paper frames city council meetings as dynamic systems of discourse, where a citizen’s ability to contribute is shaped by the design of institutional environments and mediating artifacts. Drawing on field studies and participatory design methods, the author dissects how the design of such meetings supports and hinders equitable participation. To address these challenges, the author turns to another structured form of discourse: the design critique. Contemporary critique practices offer participatory frameworks for exchanging feedback that redistribute power and invite diverse perspectives. Building on these parallels, the author prototypes a critique-inspired, multimodal system of design interventions that add flexible, informal, and asynchronous channels for citizen engagement. While grounded in a U.S. municipal context, the resulting framework proposes adaptable methods for enhancing participatory governance and transparent citizen–government communication across public sector settings globally.