Name: Designing for Meaningful Participation
Start: Wed Oct 07 2026 11:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
End: Wed Oct 07 2026 12:30:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Location: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

How can participation itself be designed? What conditions allow participatory processes to move beyond consultation and create meaningful influence within institutions? 

Participation is increasingly embedded in the language and practices of public institutions, education, design and policymaking. Yet creating opportunities for people to contribute does not in itself ensure that their participation will have meaningful influence, often it leads to tokenisation that should be avoided. What needs to be designed around participation for it to become consequential, inclusive, sustainable and realistic? 

This workshop builds on a recent participatory design process developed together with the recently established Hungarian Ministry of Education and Child Affairs, aimed at informing the creation of a future child and youth participation group within the ministry. Across a series of workshops, participants explored what meaningful participation should entail, identified barriers within existing institutional structures, and worked on questions ranging from representation and accessibility to decision-making, feedback, facilitation and organisational conditions. 

As this is not a finished model, rather a design in the making, the workshop uses it as a case through which participants can critically examine the conditions that enable meaningful participation within institutions. Working with examples from the process alongside their own experiences, participants will identify where participation gains or loses influence and explore how structures, roles, communication, power and feedback mechanisms can be intentionally designed. 

Based on the presented case, at the workshop a shared set of principles for designing meaningful participation will be developed that can travel across contexts - from public institutions and education to community-engaged and participatory design practices. 

For participants, the workshop offers a practical framework for examining and strengthening participatory processes in their own work. For the facilitators, the collective reflection provides an opportunity to critically test and further develop the methodology emerging from the ministry collaboration, contributing towards a transferable good practice for designing institutional participation. 

Facilitators: Anita Kaderják, Fanni Mátyók, Bori Fehér

Designing for Meaningful Participation

How can participation itself be designed?

Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem

How can participation itself be designed? The programme is presented as part of the Social Dialogues in Art+Design symposium.