Functional fiction to collective action

This paper discusses the methodology and results of the Maslow’s Palace workshops project, which engages with current debates surrounding the democratisation of digital urban design technology and stakeholder decision making, through the implementation of a speculative oriented approach to serious gaming. The research explores how serious games might be used to help marginalised communities consider past, future and present community experiences, reconcile dissimilar assumptions, generate social capital building and design responses and prime participants for further long term design engagement processes. Empirical material for this research was gathered from a range of case study workshops prepared with three landfill-based communities and external partners throughout 2017. Results show the approach helped participants develop shared norms, values and understandings of sensitive topics and develop ideas for future action through “collective tinkering”.