<p>Activities that are fun, social, engaging and put something at stake are positive for your health no matter age or condition. What can you do if you suffer from dementia and are living at a Special Housing? According to research you should dance, visit the garden, get tactile massage discuss artworks etc. Still, despite all these proposals there are many voices from this domain, telling stories about living without live. Suffering from dementia may affect your ability to speak for your self and initiate activities. How can we know what they want and not what we think they need but they don’t seem to get or might not even want? Why don’t we ask them?We propose more focus on participation and design methods to guide the way.In this report, the author discusses the experience in conducting a Participatory Design research project intended to develop a technological and a related organizational intervention. The aim was to support people with dementia living in a Special Housing with fun and engaging activities. A short description of Participatory Design as an approach within research projects and a description of how it was used in this research study are given. We then discuss the experience in conducting the research, some of the users’ comments and responses, challenges, success stories and drawbacks when trying to design and test an activity in a readymade setting with fixed schema for several weeks ahead. The overall reflection being that Participatory Design has great potential for interventional projects and research focusing on leisure activities in everyday life for people with dementia.We proposes this being due to the two concepts – participation and design</p>

Activities that are fun, social, engaging and put something at stake are positive for your health no matter age or condition. What can you do if you suffer from dementia and are living at a Special Housing? According to research you should dance, visit the garden, get tactile massage discuss artworks etc. Still, despite all these proposals there are many voices from this domain, telling stories about living without live. Suffering from dementia may affect your ability to speak for your self and initiate activities. How can we know what they want and not what we think they need but they don’t seem to get or might not even want? Why don’t we ask them?We propose more focus on participation and design methods to guide the way.In this report, the author discusses the experience in conducting a Participatory Design research project intended to develop a technological and a related organizational intervention. The aim was to support people with dementia living in a Special Housing with fun and engaging activities. A short description of Participatory Design as an approach within research projects and a description of how it was used in this research study are given. We then discuss the experience in conducting the research, some of the users’ comments and responses, challenges, success stories and drawbacks when trying to design and test an activity in a readymade setting with fixed schema for several weeks ahead. The overall reflection being that Participatory Design has great potential for interventional projects and research focusing on leisure activities in everyday life for people with dementia.We proposes this being due to the two concepts – participation and design

The goal of the presented thesis is to understand how parliaments of children and youth influence past members 'civic engagement after they leave the parliament's structure. The topic is seen by the actors. The theoretical part is focused on the concept of civic engagement, especially on youth participation. The Czech legislative frame is also mentioned. The biographical design was chosen for the methodology of the research. As a method of data collecting I collected 10 deep interviews with formal members who took part in parliaments of children and youth in the same time. The research revealed that the participation in parliaments of children and youth influences not only the civic engagement of formal members but also choosing the branch of study, its own studying at university, gaining job and the life path in general. At the same time the study presents the fields of contribution of participation in the structure of parliaments of children and youth for formal members. These fields are important for various branches of life.

The housing problem in South Africa is complicated by the cultural diversity and the rapidly changing nature of the population. This indicates a need for research to help to determine "what appropriate housing is" for various sectors of the South African population. Social researchers and design professionals therefore have to combine their efforts to provide house designs that will be appropriate to the housing needs and values of a variety of future occupants. This study focuses on the impact of rapid change in the sociophysical environment (modernization) on people's experience of the quality of their relationship with their home environments. An approach is proposed through which groups of individuals, who share similar needs and requirements regarding their housing, can be identified for inclusion in a process of participatory design. A theoretical framework is developed to account for the variety of perspectives of participants (users, researchers and design professionals) in the design process. Through application of the theoretical framework, a novel approach to the determination of "what to design for whom" is developed. The "modernity fit" concept is introduced to describe the quality of the relationship between people and their housing in terms of a rating of the modernity of both human and housing characteristics. It is proposed that the quality of the relationship or "fit" between the modernity of human characteristics and the modernity of the physical characteristics of the house influences people's experience of their houses. Results of this study indicate that the "modernity fit" concept opens up new avenues for research to assist in the design of housing in developing countries. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

The housing problem in South Africa is complicated by the cultural diversity and the rapidly changing nature of the population. This indicates a need for research to help to determine "what appropriate housing is" for various sectors of the South African population. Social researchers and design professionals therefore have to combine their efforts to provide house designs that will be appropriate to the housing needs and values of a variety of future occupants. This study focuses on the impact of rapid change in the sociophysical environment (modernization) on people's experience of the quality of their relationship with their home environments. An approach is proposed through which groups of individuals, who share similar needs and requirements regarding their housing, can be identified for inclusion in a process of participatory design. A theoretical framework is developed to account for the variety of perspectives of participants (users, researchers and design professionals) in the design process. Through application of the theoretical framework, a novel approach to the determination of "what to design for whom" is developed. The "modernity fit" concept is introduced to describe the quality of the relationship between people and their housing in terms of a rating of the modernity of both human and housing characteristics. It is proposed that the quality of the relationship or "fit" between the modernity of human characteristics and the modernity of the physical characteristics of the house influences people's experience of their houses. Results of this study indicate that the "modernity fit" concept opens up new avenues for research to assist in the design of housing in developing countries. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)