Justice-oriented Design Listening: Participatory Ecoacoustics with a Ghanaian Forest Community

Despite a long tradition of ‘non-expert’ participation in ecoacoustics research, asymmetrical distribution of resources and engagement between the Global North and Global South continue, extending to ecoacoustic sensing and design. Whilst there exists a growing body of work in Participatory Design (PD) addressing the technical and social challenges of ecoacoustic research, we find that popular PD methods inadequately address design justice and decolonising agendas. Through participatory ecoacoustic sensing and design engagements with a forest community in Ghana, we highlight the tensions that emerge when employing visual and written modes of PD in a context where an oral approach to creativity and communication is more appropriate. We present Justice-oriented Design Listening, an acoustically-mediated approach to PD, described through three modes: polyphony, pace and transformation. This work contributes to calls for design justice by developing a methodological approach that facilitates pluralistic participation in design when developing conservation technologies in non-Western contexts.