Re-defining Characteristics of a Design Protagonist – Elements of Children’s Design Capital

The importance of child empowerment in and through design and making has been acknowledged. The notion of “child as a Design Protagonist” concerning technology has recently been introduced. We conducted a narrative literature review to examine the current understanding of what it requires from children to become a Protagonist in design. The main objective of this study is to examine the concepts associated with children’s competences relevant for design, such as various capitals, skills, and capacities. We identify core concepts used as well as several gaps in this literature base. We separate the competences into 1) those that need to be nurtured in children and 2) those that children already have and bring to the design process. We propose a concept of design capital for mapping these competences of child Design Protagonists.