My research addresses the challenge of scaling Participatory Design in the context of healthcare digitalization. I investigate how user participation can be organized and sustained when digital infrastructures are designed across organizational boundaries — a setting where traditional workshop-based approaches to participation reach their limits.
The empirical foundation is a longitudinal case study of a project developing digital solutions for patient handover in Norwegian primary care. I have followed lead implementers and co-implementers across multiple organizations over several years, studying how health workers take on design roles: shaping technology, transforming work practices, and mobilizing their organizations for change. My research bridges the Scandinavian Participatory Design tradition and Information Systems infrastructure theory.
The dissertation develops a Participatory Democratic Theory of Systems Design — reframing core PD commitments (mutual learning, having a say, co-creation) at the level of distributed systems, addressing what participation looks like when it must extend beyond the design session and into organizational life.
Supervisor: Miria Grisot
Co-supervisor: Suhas Govind Joshi