Is Co-Design the Solution or Part of the Problem? From disciplinary involvement to transformative engagement and participation

Co-design is widely seen as a moral imperative in service design, assumed to ensure inclusion, agency and systemic equity. Yet Barcelona’s celebrated participatory budgeting initiative shows how unequal allocations of social worth can be (re)generated not only through exclusion, but also through inclusion and ‘participation’ – calling for a critical rethinking of ‘co-design’.