Pauline Oger

Codesigning inclusive transitions: exploration and analysis of new mediation formats

Supported by the association Signes de sens, this thesis explores how inclusive transition are implemented in practice. The goal was to examine how codesign can support and contribute to the formulation and management of public policies capable of addressing the complex challenges posed by this global transition, drawing on renewed logics of collective action.

The analysis shows that it is no longer a matter of designing with or for specific publics, but of creating the very conditions that make such codesign possible. This requires bringing together the actors of a territorial ecosystem within conceptive communities, understood as collective spaces for project development. In this paradigm, the prefiguration phase of codesign communities becomes essential, structured around three stages: recruiting participants, aligning them around shared ambitions, and projecting them into possible futures.

The thesis analyzes these three phases through an action-research framework that combines perspectives from Communication and Information Sciences and Design Studies. Drawing on participant observation in the fields of culture, education, and mobility, it demonstrates that codesign, when applied to inclusive transitions, faces organizational, strategic, and political challenges. Transition codesign focuses on the prefiguration of dedicated communities, conceived as spaces of mediation capable of progressively aligning the representations of public decision-makers, designers, and community members; supporting collective empowerment; and engaging actors in a dynamic that moves from exploration to the planning of inclusive futures. In this context, the designer's role changes: it now involves conceiving enabling mediums or boundary objects that empower actors throughout the process.

Finally, the thesis makes four contributions to research in Communication and Information Sciences and Design: a survey of inclusive codesign methodologies; an empirical analysis of designers' practices in the context of transitions; three artifacts developed to support the implementation of inclusive transitions; and a methodological contribution integrating the three phases of prefiguration into classical codesign approaches.