1 WHAT IS DESIGNERS’ SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY? INVESTIGATING NEW ROLES OF DESIGNERS IN DESIGN PARTICIPATION PROCESSES. Yanki Lee Royal College of Art, Helen Hamlyn Centre, London London, yan-ki.lee@rca.ac.uk ABSTRACT: The world of design is under a massive change: design becomes everyday activity rather than a professional study. What are the new roles of professional designers under this transformation? This paper investigates the re-writing of designers’ roles as an important component in achieving Design Participation. It starts from the Papanek’s ideology of social design and explained by the theoretical discourse from Lyotard’s concept of narratives concept and then looks at the Populist Movement in design. Following by the introduction of the analysing tool of concrete and abstract space, which aims to understand the changes in the design of world. Real world examples of design participation are shown as the basis for more holistic approach of design. Finally, the discussion is concluded with a realignment of designers’ roles (generator, facilitator and developer) from that of producing objects, environments and systems, to that of facilitating innovative collaboration and creating platforms for social inclusion in design practice.