Indexing Citizenship: Semiotic Mediation of Participatory Design in Contemporary Hawaii

Architectural and urban design are now widely incorporating the method of what is called participatory design or citizen design and getting stakeholders involved in the very process previously left solely to experts. Based on anthropological qualitative research in Hawaiʻi, this paper discusses how a corporation seeking to represent corporate citizenship developed an affordable housing community while incorporating voices from the community. Using concepts and insights in anthropology and particularly that of semiotic mediation, this paper analyzes how certain design elements are selectively formed as signs capable of mediating future interpretations of and claims to citizenship. Through an analysis of interactions that took place using transcripts and observations at community-wide events and corporate meetings, what is revealed is that different groups including the corporation, local residents, and employees in search of homes nearby workplaces, differently contribute to the making of the design of the future community. Occupying different statuses and roles within a semiotic participation framework, they respectively contribute to the construction of the overall design as a composite sketch of signs indexically “pointing to” different ideas and preferences, which can be construed as meaningful by different participant groups. It is argued that these efforts are processes whereby design elements are made grounds for future claims to corporate citizenship and cultural citizenship.