ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of social actors in product development. It focuses on co-design as a design approach that strives for active involvement of at least some of these actors in the product development process. The matching of the norms in the practice is crucial for a healthy functioning of that practice. The actor-network approach has its roots more in sociology than in philosophy, but it does call for philosophical reflections on the role of social actors in technological developments. Related to co-design, but with a different focus, is value-sensitive design. This approach emerged somewhat later, in the 1980s. Again, the interests of prospective users are at stake, but now it is primarily the values they hold, and in particular their moral values. One particular tool in value-sensitive design is the use of scenarios in which the way values play out in possible futures is elaborated into encompassing images of those possible futures.
