Host: Japanese Society for the Science of Design
Name : THE 73rd ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF JSSD
Number : 73
Location : [in Japanese]
Date : June 12, 2026 - June 14, 2026
This study investigates the qualitative transformation of citizen participation in public space through ethnographic fieldwork in Komae, Tokyo — one of Japan's smallest cities. Focusing on three practices (a shogi board intervention, a night market, and a community cleaning activity), the study identifies a three-stage transformation process — incidental contact, voluntary engagement, and continuous operational participation — and finds that participation originates not through designed pathways but through incidental contact. Three facilitating conditions are identified: the accidental nature of initial engagement, the visibility of one's role, and the structural prerequisites of compact urban form and organizational autonomy.
