Building Trust in Participatory Design to Promote Relational Network for Social Innovation

Abstract

Social innovation is both the driving force and the goal of participatory design. However, social innovation does not start directly with action but presupposes the creation of meaningful encounters between participants, which requires corresponding commons to allow for various meetings, conversations, and actions that are not circumscribed. Based on literature research and practical experience, this paper argues that trust-building is the key to creating relational commons. This paper reviews literature about trust and participatory design, uncovers a vision of future co-creative communities based on trust and blockchain of DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) as a new organizational form, and analyzes in detail the trust mechanisms of participatory design for social innovation, leading to a theoretical framework. This framework argues that shaping trust's cognitive and affective foundations is crucial to building a social innovation network. Subsequent research will enable the integration of blockchain technology with the theoretical framework and verify the model's validity through empirical studies.