Computing and the common: an empirical case of Participatory Design today

With this paper we contribute to the ongoing discussion on the transformations of Participatory Design to address current societal transformations. We focus on how the implications of the emergence of financialized capitalism, characterized by "accumulation by dispossession", could be reduced by the nourishment of the "common". In taking this approach, we claim that nourishing the "common", which refers to the ensemble of the material and symbolic elements that tie together human beings, would allow a renewal of Participatory Design, reinvigorating its political agenda. We base our reasoning on a project called ThinkDigiTank, the goal of which is the construction of a digital platform supporting a network of Italian "think tanks", which refers to organizations aimed at producing political and cultural thinking. In this paper, we theoretically articulate the needs of a PD process nourishing the common and we discuss the empirical case, highlighting the possibilities of a renewal in PD and practical strategies to support commoning practices.