ECSCW 2026 Workshop: Sustaining Participation Beyond Projects: CSCW Challenges in Designing Infrastructures with Marginalised Communities

An example of a previous Community of Practice workshop. Participants are pictured gathered around a table with ideation materials.

Abstract

Participatory design and community engagement are central to CSCW, yet sustaining meaningful participation with marginalised communities remains a persistent challenge, particularly in contexts shaped by institutional fragmentation, socio-technical exclusion, and structural inequalities. While Communities of Practice (CoPs) support professional knowledge exchange, they often fail to enable equitable participation for those most affected by sociotechnical systems. This workshop examines participatory infrastructuring as a core CSCW challenge, drawing on insights from the MOBILISE project, a multi-year initiative working with Irish Traveller communities to address energy, housing, and service access in mobile living contexts. Our work highlights the need to intentionally design engagement infrastructures that support sustained collaboration across community, institutional, and technical boundaries. From this, Communities of Engagement (CoEs) are emerging as a promising approach to inclusive, longterm participation. Through collaborative activities, participants will develop frameworks and research directions to advance CSCW work on participatory infrastructuring and equitable engagement.

O’Keeffe, M., Heffernan, D., Cronin, M., Murphy, T., Lally, P., Ahern, C., Ehimen, E., Galvin, M. (2026): Practices of Participation and Co-Creation in Healthcare: Lessons Learned and Advancements of Established Methodologies. Proceedings of the 24th EUSSET Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW) – Posters and Demos, Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies. ISSN: 2510-2591 https://doi.org/10.48340/to-be-added

Further information can be found in the full workshop description.

Call for Participation

Workshop Goals

Engagement is often treated as a short-term activity, rather than an ongoing socio-technical infrastructure that requires intentional design, coordination, and maintenance. Drawing on insights from the MOBILISE project where we worked closely with the Irish Traveller community, we introduce Communities of Engagement (CoEs) as an approach to designing inclusive, long-term engagement across community, institutional, and technical boundaries. Through interactive and hands-on activities, participants will collaboratively develop frameworks, tools, and research directions to support equitable and sustained participation.

An example of a previous Irish Traveller community workshop. Participants are pictured gathered around a table with drawing materials, watching a researcher present on a large digital whiteboard.

Workshop Focus

Topics include (but are not limited to):

Participatory infrastructuring and sustaining engagement beyond projects
Challenges of long-term participation with marginalised communities
Socio-technical infrastructures that enable or constrain participation
Power, inclusion, and decision-making in participatory design
Designing engagement across institutional, community, and technical boundaries
Lessons from housing, energy, healthcare, and public sector contexts
Methods for trust-building, reciprocity, and long-term collaboration
Comparing engagement models (e.g., Communities of Practice vs emerging approaches)
Ethical and methodological challenges in long-term participatory research

Who Should Attend?

We welcome researchers and practitioners working in:

CSCW and Participatory Design
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Civic tech and social innovation
Public sector and policy
Community and grassroots organisations

We especially encourage participation from those:

Working with marginalised or underrepresented communities
Interested in long-term engagement beyond project timelines
Exploring inclusive, low-tech, or participatory methods

We aim to bring together a diverse group of 10–15 participants across disciplines and sectors.

Workshop Format

This is a highly interactive, half-day workshop combining discussion and hands-on activities. Participants will:

Map real-world challenges in sustaining participation
Identify gaps in current participatory design approaches
Co-design Communities of Engagement (CoEs)
Work with low-tech toolkits (cards, worksheets)
Contribute to shared frameworks, tools, and future research directions

The workshop will also support building a collaborative network and potential follow-on outputs (e.g., joint publications, special issues).

Submission Guidelines

To participate, please submit a short position paper (2–4 pages) outlining:

Your research or practice context
Your interest in participatory design / engagement
Challenges or insights related to sustaining participation
Relevant experience, challenges, or case examples (optional)
What you hope to contribute or gain

Submissions should follow the ECSCW / EUSSET conference template and be submitted as a PDF. Formatting does not need to be perfect at this stage. Accepted contributions will be published in the EUSSET Digital Library (camera-ready instructions will be provided after acceptance).

To submit, please send an email with your position paper (PDF) to Michelle O' Keeffe (Michelle.OKeeffe2@mtu.ie) on or before 11:59PM (Irish time), Thursday, May 7th, 2026.