Dilemmas in situating participation in rural ways of saying
Nicola J. Bidwell, Dianna Hardy · 2009
We reflect upon participation in design processes by people who emphasise 'primary orality', or direct, face-to-face, unmediated communication, due to their rural locations in places with low technology ambiance and cultural antecedents. We focus on issues and relationships between rural contexts and primary orality of relevance to our projects with Indigenous people in regional Australia and villagers in remote rural South Africa. We observe dilemmas as we apply methods, which are informed by ethnomethodology, ethnography and Participatory Design, in enabling local participation, such as intrusive recording practices, concerns about power structures and appropriate investment of time.