Participatory IT Design
Summary overview of PIT and our activities (fold-out)
The Department of Participatory IT Design (PIT) is dedicated to making digitalization more socially just, inclusive and aligned with democratic values. We focus on the question of how societal participation is intertwined with the design of digital systems.
PIT research and teaching agendas are highly interdisciplinary and mediate between computer science and the social sciences and humanities. We pursue a design-oriented approach that works with expertise from design studies, artistic practice and media studies.
PIT's interdisciplinary team is led by Prof. Dr. Claude Draude.
PIT's research is dedicated to various challenges posed by the increasing digitalization of almost all areas of life. We promote societal participation, self-determination and inclusion through the further development of participatory design approaches, innovative methods and theoretical concepts. Our work is guided by the fact that computer science must work together with the social sciences and humanities on an equal footing to make digitalization both socially and individually acceptable. With our research, we create a collaborative space that brings together technological and social perspectives.
In line with our research, our teaching activities offer interdisciplinary courses bridging social sciences/humanities and informatics. To address the digital transformation in contemporary culture and society fully, knowledge of the workings of digital systems is needed alongside an understanding of their societal impact. In our teaching, we cover both fields with a focus on sociotechnical aspects of computing and the intersection of social diversity and digitalisation.
The key aim is to provide a translational space for students to learn about knowledge and methods from the social sciences/humanities and explore how these can inform the methodology, design, and development of just, fair, and usable IT systems.
PIT is part of the interdisciplinary Research Center for Information Systems Design (ITeG) which focuses on socially responsible IT design. We promote responsible, socially sustainable digitalisation through collaboration with academic institutions, associations and industry partners, including: Kassel Institute for Sustainability, German Informatics Society (GI), ZEVEDI - Centre Responsible Digitality.