Participatory Design and Technologies for Sustainable Development: an Approach from Action Research

Andrés Esteban Acero López (), María Catalina Ramirez Cajiao, Mauricio Peralta Mejia, Luisa Fernanda Payán Durán and Edier Ernesto Espinosa Díaz
Additional contact information
Andrés Esteban Acero López: Universidad de los Andes
María Catalina Ramirez Cajiao: Universidad de los Andes
Mauricio Peralta Mejia: Swiss Management Center
Luisa Fernanda Payán Durán: Universidad de los Andes
Edier Ernesto Espinosa Díaz: Universidad de los Andes

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2019, vol. 32, issue 2, No 3, 167-191

Abstract: Abstract This paper explores the relevance of the action research for design of technological solutions that lead to both systemic sustainable development and active involvement of the community. The paper shows how this idea was implemented in a project for water resource conservation with educational institutions of rural areas in Colombia. Through the use of technology, a reduction in water consumption increases in awareness about the use of this natural resource, and the active involvement of the community were sought. Additionally, social processes related to the conservation of natural resources were addressed through a socio-technical approach for analysis and design. During the application of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the participants and researchers created technological prototypes that allowed to: 1) give visibility to the community’s initiatives, and 2) save water in the households. This paper focuses on the importance of the design process of innovative solutions for social and environmental issues through the participative approach of action research.

Keywords: Drinking water conservation; Participatory action research; Technology design; Participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11213-018-9459-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:syspar:v:32:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11213-018-9459-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11213

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-018-9459-6

Access Statistics for this article

Systemic Practice and Action Research is currently edited by Robert Flood

More articles in Systemic Practice and Action Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().