Niedderer, K., Ludden, G., Dening, T., Holthoff-Detto, V., 2024.

Introduction

The introduction to Part 1 of this book traces the rise of collaborative practices in research and design to provide the context for the chapters to follow. It unpacks assumptions made within health and care services and considers how and why co-design is well-suited to help address them. One key aspect is providing a holistic perspective through multi-disciplinary stakeholder teams including experts by experience. Another is the consideration of their role within such teams, which requires considering the ethics, citizenship and power relationships of including experts by experience. At the same time, the introduction highlights the need for the creative approach to help stakeholder teams to progress beyond experiences towards a tangible vision for changing existing situations into desired ones. This introduction provides a summary overview of the seven chapters included in Part 1. They progress from the broader conceptual approaches and framework considerations relating to ethics, co-production and co-design towards methods and applications of co-design in specific design and arts contexts framed around situated case studies. Together the chapters offer insights into, and make the case for, two core areas and benefits of co-design: the co-creation of wellbeing and co-design for change.