Exploring context and building empathy with the youth in southern Africa

This paper explores the use of a collective imagery framework, as part of a participatory design workshop, facilitated by the My Dream World project in Namibia. The workshop focused on issues relating to youth unemployment in Southern Africa. The collective imagery framework, discussed in this paper, was the first phase of the participatory workshop. The framework aimed to externalise individual creative imagery, in order to create a safe, creative space for participants to explore their own perceptions regarding youth context and unemployment, as well as those of others. This paper documents the context, process, and participant experience, and aims to identify outcomes as well as factors that contribute to, or challenges empathetic interactions and storytelling within participatory design practices.