Name
Ziwei Lin (Zoey)
PhD Title
From Co-design to Co-governance: The Role of Service Design in Supporting Social Governance in Rural China
Short abstract:
This PhD looks into how service design might evolve from co-design to co-governance in rural China. Rather than focusing on one-time workshops, the study investigates the initial effort required to allow design to enter and be embedded throughout governance processes. Drawing on four cases involving 31 design projects, the study explores how service design, a relatively new concept, generates acceptable entrance points within local government contexts. It also investigates how designers translate participatory processes into institutionally recognisable forms of evidence, procedures, and administrative language, as well as how these practices gradually settle into mechanisms, tools, and everyday routines, thereby contributing to infrastructuring and iinstitutioning.
This study employed Research through Design with multi-sited case studies. It is based on long-term observation of design interventions, interviews with public servants, social workers, villagers, and designers, and a thorough review of project materials and design artefacts. The study gives an analytical framework for explaining how participatory practices might continue beyond one-time projects, as well as practical insights into creating participation in hierarchical and accountable settings.
Short bio:
Zoey works across service design, industrial design, and HCI design. She is curious about how service design can find its place in the Chinese public sector and hopes that one day it can open up more in-house design roles within it. Zoey enjoys teaching and writing, mainly because talking with people always brings new perspectives and unexpected learning. She is interested in design anthropology, fiction, participatory design, speculative design, and public management theory. In the future, she hopes to design more products and services and make things that feel thoughtful and bring happiness.
Supervisory team:
Dr Hena Ali; Dr Lara Salinas; Prof Alison Prendiville
Dates:
2023 – present (expected completion: 2026)
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ziwei-lin-010725a0/
Publications
Lin, Z. (2025). From co-design to co-governance: The role of service design in supporting social governance in China. The Design Journal, 28(5), 1104–1114. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2025.2540379
Lin, Z., & Wu, Y. (2025). Gaze and identity: Unpacking the dynamics of social design in Chinese rural contexts through autoethnography. CoDesign, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15710882.2025.2472176
Lin, Z., & Wu, Y. (2024). Future newspapers as a participatory design tool for Chinese rural service innovation. The Design Journal, 27(2), 206–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2023.2292903
Lin, Z., & Wang, Y. (2023). Inspiration for developing service design prototypes through speculative design: A case study in the field of carbon neutral in the UK. Proceedings of IASDR 2023. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.535
Wang, B., Li, K., & Lin, Z. (2025). Exploring the doodle toolkit for burnout intervention among grassroots employees in one Chinese state-owned enterprise. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12, Article 1454. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05644-8
Liu, J., Lin, Z., Kettley, S., & Lewis, S. (2024). Designing for care together: Enhancing future practices through newspaper-driven co-design. Design4Health Conference .
Service Futures Lab 