The paper was presented at IASDR 2025 in Taipei in Taiwan on 3rd December.
Authors:
Masako Kitazaki, Department of Visual Communication Design, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Riichiro Take, Fujitsu Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Ryoko Koborita, NTT Communications Corporation, Tokyo, Japan
Yuichi Nakamura, SoftBank Corp., Tokyo, Japan
Abstract:
This study investigates how the participatory design concept of infrastructuring and the formation of a public manifests differently in Japanese workplaces under data-driven management. Building on recognized pillars for public formation—incorporation of authority, development of attachment, and cultivation of ownership—we explore how these elements are shaped by Japan’s unique organizational and cultural dynamics. Although employees in Japan express concerns about data use in the workplace, such as potential increases in bias, discrimination, deskilling, and unsafe practices, these anxieties rarely lead to open discussion or collective action. We argue that sociocultural factors, including a deep-rooted emphasis on harmony and deference to authority, shape this hesitation. In such contexts, efforts to initiate infrastructuring can be misinterpreted as resistance to authority rather than constructive engagement. Through a series of workshops designed to simulate and reflect on everyday tensions surrounding data use, we examine how Japanese employees could foster public formation and acts of infrastructuring within hierarchical and collectivist structures. Our findings suggest that infrastructuring in Japanese workplaces requires reinterpreting the three pillars: gaining top-down authorization, aligning the public’s attachments with the organization’s goal, and building capacity for initiating and participating in the public. By examining these challenges and adaptations, this study contributes to ongoing conversations about how design researchers must culturally contextualize infrastructuring practices. We conclude by emphasizing the need to discussions about “ontological struggles,” highlighting how practitioners translate knowledge shared in design research into culturally situated wisdom to advance perseverance and enhancement of the pluriverse.
The paper is available here
Masako is a designer, researcher, and educator who explores how participatory and practice-based design can support more creative, ethical, and sustainable societies.
Her current research investigates co-creative approaches rooted in local cultures and everyday practices, focusing on the dynamics that emerge when people create together. Through workshops, theatre, games, interactive media, spatial design, and designed artefacts, she explores how collaborative making fosters reflection, transformation, and new forms of collective imagination.
She conducted practice-based research at Delft University of Technology (2016–2018), working with local communities and older adults using participatory design and Research through Design approaches. In 2018, she joined the Ubiquitous Computing Research Group at the University of Lugano, Switzerland, where she conducted participatory design research with citizens in the sharing economy context. Before entering academia, she spent over fifteen years at Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., working on service design, UX research, UI design, and graphic design for new business development.
She holds a B.A. in Visual Communication Design from Musashino Art University in Tokyo and an MSc in Design for Interaction from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
URLs:
https://www.musabi.ac.jp/course/undergraduate/vcd/faculty/kitazaki_masako/