Design and the Big Society

Big Society Research is a project funded by Research Councils UK (RCUK) under their Connected Communities cross-council funding programme. The aim of Big Society Research is to harvest current research either directly or tangentially linked to ‘big society’ and place it under a single banner that can become an effective avenue for disseminating and achieving impact in local and central government, with policy-makers and communities themselves. This workshop was one of four planned interdisciplinary themed workshops in themed areas: Technology; Design; Inclusion and Finance. The focus was on how design might contribute to help support a society that allows people to innovate and change their world using participatory and co-design approaches to develop local responses to public services.