# In the Relational Sandbox: Deep Democracy and Technology

**Authors:** Jason Miklian, Alma Leora Culén, Nicholas Stevens, Jasmin Niess, Sisse Finken, Kristian Hoelscher
**Published in:** *Proceedings of Nordes 2025: Relational Design*, 2025
**DOI:** [10.21606/nordes.2025.77](https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.77)
**Canonical URL:** https://miklian.org/papers/in-the-relational-sandbox-deep-democracy-and-technology

## Abstract

Designing for democracy often emphasizes values but underestimates the role of relationships in shaping civic life. This workshop explores how relationality - our social ties, political agency, and economic conditions - affects grassroots democratic design experiments and the technologies they inspire. Grounded in deep democracy and participatory approaches, we engage in small-scale experiments using Relational Sandbox to explore how new technologies that support democratic values can reshape power dynamics and how locally rooted, tailored designs can counteract capital-driven technological development. By experimenting with relational civics, we will collectively imagine new design strategies that prioritize meaningful technologies for deep democracy over profit-driven ones. This workshop invites designers, activists, and researchers to co-develop strategies and design guidelines that place relationships at the heart of democratic practice.

**Keywords:** democracy, technology, relational design, participatory design

---

## Citation

Jason Miklian, Alma Leora Culén, Nicholas Stevens, Jasmin Niess, Sisse Finken, Kristian Hoelscher. "In the Relational Sandbox: Deep Democracy and Technology." *Proceedings of Nordes 2025: Relational Design*, 2025.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21606/nordes.2025.77

## About the Author

Jason Miklian is Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), University of Oslo. ORCID: [0000-0003-1227-0975](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1227-0975). Google Scholar: [profile](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RHlevGEAAAAJ&hl=en).