RE-LEARNING PARTICIPATORY DESIGN WITH MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES:: Resistance, indigenous youth and the making of pictograms

This study proposes an alternative Participatory Design research and production framework rooted in participatory processes from Latin America, aiming to contribute to the resistance of historically marginalized communities by re-learning to do participatory design with indigenous peoples. It integrates Participatory Design, particularly research and practices by/from the Global South and Indigenous Community Communication, aiming to expand traditional participation approaches and avoid extractive research. The focus is on pictograms as knowledge systems and counter-hegemonic tools. Accordingly, the research draws on an empirical study of a participatory design project in the Ecuadorian Amazon, involving collaborative and intercultural design of a pictogram system to represent and reactualize knowledge and practices with and by indigenous youth and their communities. The work emphasizes adding political-pedagogical layers to Participatory Design, highlighting the transformative potential of resistance processes as a creative force. Ultimately, the research contributes to understanding how Participatory Design can sustain histories of resistance and reciprocate the diverse knowledge of the communities involved.