6 Feb
2026
6 Feb
'26
1:56 p.m.
/Apologize for unintended cross-mailing/
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Special Issue on
*Democratic Technology Design*
Call for Papers -> link <https://ixdea.org/democratic-technology-design/>
to be published at the
/*Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A)*/
(ISSN 1826-9745, eISSN 2283-2998)
https://ixdea.org/
https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-000
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**** *Since 2015 also* in *Emerging Sources Citation Index* and *Web of
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IxD&A implements the Gold Open Access (OA) road to its contents
with no charge to the authors (submission & paper processing)
Help us in improving the quality of the editorial process and of the
journal, please donate: -> link
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*Guest Editors:*
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Alma Leora Culén, Jasmin Niess, Nicholas Stevens, Jason Miklian
University of Oslo, Norway
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*Important dates:*
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* Submission deadline: *May 15th, 2026*
* Notification to the authors: July 15th, 2026
* Camera ready paper: August 31st, 2026
* Publication of the special issue: Autumn 2026 (tentative)
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*Overview*
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Democracy today is not only debated in parliaments and assemblies, but
also continuously
shaped — and sometimes aggravated — by the technologies that mediate our
everyday lives. Social media feeds amplify outrage, recommendation
engines entrench polarisation, and algorithmic infrastructures
concentrate power in the hands of a few global actors. What once seemed
like a promise of digital democracy now too often appears as a machinery
of division and manipulation.
Yet, design opens other possibilities. Across various research fields,
communities and
researchers are experimenting with alternative technologies, including
cooperative social media platforms, deliberation tools for citizens’
assemblies, AI systems that support participation, and infrastructures
for commoning. These are not only technical artefacts but also
democratic experiments, reminding us that technologies can embody values
such as inclusion, accountability, transparency, and collective agency.
This special issue explores democratic technology design, the idea that
technologies can be designed not merely for efficiency or engagement,
but for democracy itself. What would it mean to treat algorithms as
accountable civic actors? To imagine infrastructures as shared commons?
To design platforms that cultivate empathy, dialogue, and care rather
than outrage?
We invite contributions that make such imagination possible: conceptual
frameworks linking political theory with design methods; participatory
and relational practices for developing democratic technologies;
empirical exemplars of counter-models to platform capitalism; and
critical reflections on how design might resist manipulation,
polarisation, and exclusion.Designing for democracy is not only a
technical challenge but also a cultural, social, and political one. It
requires crossing disciplinary boundaries—bringing together HCI,
participatory design, CSCW, design research, STS, philosophy, and
political theory. By consolidating these perspectives, this special
issue aims to chart a growing but still fragmented field, opening a
space for rethinking how technologies can support democratic futures.
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*Topics of Interest*
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We invite a broad range of researchers to address both theoretical and
practical issues around democratic technology design, including
conceptual papers, methodological innovations, empirical case studies,
design exemplars, and critical reflections.
Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following themes:
• Principles and frameworks, e.g. using theories of democracy as design
principles
• Practices and methods, e.g. participatory and relational design for
democracy, tools
for deliberation and collective decision-making, speculative and
adversarial design
practices
• Systems and alternatives, e.g. alternative or counter-models to
platform capitalism,
cooperative social media and civic platforms, AI systems designed for
participation
and accountability, digital infrastructures for commoning
• Critical and situated perspectives, e.g. responses to crises such as
polarisation, false
information, and exclusion, inclusivity, feminist, postcolonial, and
indigenous
perspectives, democratic technology and long-term social justice design
• Design artefacts and prototypes, e.g. design contributions,
prototypes, and exemplars
of democratic technology, transition and infrastructuring approaches to
sustainable
democratic futures.
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/*Submission guidelines and procedure*/
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All submissions (abstracts and later final manuscripts) must be original
and may not be under review by another publication.
The manuscripts should be submitted either in .doc or in .rtf format.
All papers will be blindly peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers.
Authors are invited to submit 8-30 pages paper (including authors'
information, abstract, all tables, figures, references, etc.).
The paper should be written according to the IxD&A authors' guidelines
->https://ixdea.org/authors-guidelines/
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*Authors' guidelines*
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Paper submission page:
-> link <https://ojs.ixdea.org/>
(Please upload all submissions using the Submission page.
When submitting the paper, please, choose the section:
"/SI: Democratic Technology Design/")
More information on the submission procedure and on the characteristics
of the paper format can be found on the website of the IxD&A Journal
where information on the copyright policy and responsibility of authors,
publication ethics and malpractice are published.
For scientific advice and for any query please contact the guest
editors: marking the subject as: /SI: Democratic Technology Design/
• almira [at] uio [dot] no
• jasminni [at] uio [dot] no
• nichoss [at] uio [dot] no
• jason.miklian [at] globe [dot] uio [dot] no