This document reports on the Designing Distributed Community Participation (DDCP) research project, led by a team of five researchers at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) from March – July 2021. Framed around three Knowledge Exchange workshops, DDCP brought together a cross-section of experience and insights from design and public health researchers and community engagement professionals from the public and third sectors. These explored distributed engagement through the lenses of processes, practices, and partnerships, and in relation to themes of youth engagement, community development, and health and wellbeing.

Through this, DDCP has shared best practice surrounding distributed and digital participation by capturing and evaluating examples
of adapted and innovative methods, tools and techniques. These approaches are drawn from blended research and pedagogical practices, reflecting how researchers, PGR students, and organisations have re-positioned participatory research methods
in response to the uncertain circumstances that the pandemic
has presented. Across the three workshops key challenges and constraints, new and emergent approaches to participation, and opportunities for future hybrid ways of working were foregrounded. This led to the identification of three overarching themes to frame discussions around practical case study examples, and explore engagement approaches that are transferable in distinct contexts :

Theme 1: Storytelling and Communicating (recruitment
and marketing);

Theme 2: Ethical/inclusive participation (supporting accessibility, inclusivity and safeguarding);

Theme 3: Expanding Engagement (designing digital/hybrid experiences, capacity building, and the value of creativity).

As our own research progresses, the DDCP team will identify opportunities to understand how hybrid spaces and places can be effectively designed to positively influence the relational dynamics
of distributed community engagement; define the specific properties and purposes of material artefacts and the ways in which they can support creative expression and mutual learning; and to explore the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a further shift in what people and communities are invited to contribute, their roles and responsibilities, and how a further recalibration of power and control can lead to meaningful outcomes and impact on the ground.