Abstract
Participatory designers in Singapore work within Bhabha’s “third space,” where identities and practices are continuously negotiated across cultural boundaries. This qualitative study, based on interviews and ethnographic observation with 18 designers addressing social welfare for marginalized communities, examines how designers’ intersectional identities—such as female, queer, Chinese, and gig creatives—shape an ethic of care rooted in Asianised neighbourliness. Designers strategically inhabit in-between spaces, balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches through critical curiosity and cultural competence. Findings identify three interlinked personas: (1) Facilitator—mediating perspectives and trust; (2) Maker—engaging in embodied, situated making; and (3) Reflexive practitioner—cultivating curiosity across demographics. This iterative ethic enables designers to mobilise creative agency and relational care, co-creating resilient, context-specific responses and new subjectivities for participatory social agency. The study highlights how iterative, participatory practices foster alternative, neighbourly care and pragmatic social agency within Singapore’s diverse, rapidly changing context.
Keywords
Participatory design, cultural competence, identity, third space, iterative ethic, Asianised, neighbourly care
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.384
Citation
Chen, C. (2026) Participatory Design as Third Space: Iterative Ethic in Singapore’s Contemporary Multiculturalism, 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.2026.384
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Participatory Design as Third Space: Iterative Ethic in Singapore’s Contemporary Multiculturalism
Participatory designers in Singapore work within Bhabha’s “third space,” where identities and practices are continuously negotiated across cultural boundaries. This qualitative study, based on interviews and ethnographic observation with 18 designers addressing social welfare for marginalized communities, examines how designers’ intersectional identities—such as female, queer, Chinese, and gig creatives—shape an ethic of care rooted in Asianised neighbourliness. Designers strategically inhabit in-between spaces, balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches through critical curiosity and cultural competence. Findings identify three interlinked personas: (1) Facilitator—mediating perspectives and trust; (2) Maker—engaging in embodied, situated making; and (3) Reflexive practitioner—cultivating curiosity across demographics. This iterative ethic enables designers to mobilise creative agency and relational care, co-creating resilient, context-specific responses and new subjectivities for participatory social agency. The study highlights how iterative, participatory practices foster alternative, neighbourly care and pragmatic social agency within Singapore’s diverse, rapidly changing context.