Designing for Participation: Dignity and Autonomy of Service (Part 2)

This paper explores a conceptual framework for deepening our understanding of the social and ethical aspects of service, such as human dignity. A philosophical survey of this topic reveals that the basis of dignity is autonomy; however, current frameworks of service, which are often based on the logics of mass production and information control, generally attempt to control people rather than supporting their autonomous actions. As an alternative, I propose a framework of service based on the concept of participation, defined as the collective action of parts related to the whole for the purpose of achieving a shared goal.