Dore, Mayane2025-01-292025-01-292022-08-22Dore, M. (2022). Designing With or Against Institutions? Dilemmas of Participatory Design in Contested Cities. Design and Culture, 15(1), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2022.21039571754-7075https://hdl.handle.net/10115/68017This article explores growing concerns behind the potential instrumentalization of participatory design within democratic institutions and city-making projects. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during a participatory urban redevelopment in Sydney, it analyzes the wider political, economic, and cultural dynamics shaping participatory design (PD) in contested urban spaces. As a result, the article reflects on the institutional frameworks that challenged the democratic claims of PD, analyzing three interdependent levels of institutional constraints: ideology, governance, and narratives. In doing so, the article interrogates the role of expert-led urban governance, of neoliberal ideologies, and the power/knowledge relations in the building of a consensus narrative. Finally, the article concludes by highlighting the contingency of the so-called constraints, exploring an alternative conceptualization of institutions as social relations. Following this approach, designers may challenge constraints and simultaneously work with, against, and beyond institutions.enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/diseñourbanismo neoliberalparticipacion ciudadanavivienda publicadiseño participativoArticle10.1080/17547075.2022.2103957info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess