This article introduces Designing for Care (D4C), a distinctive approach to project management and technological design informed by Care Ethics. We propose to conceptualize “care” as both the foundational value of D4C and as its guiding mid-level principle. As a value, care provides moral grounding. As a principle, it equips D4C with moral guidance to enact a caring process. The latter is made of a set of concrete, and often recursive, caring practices. One of the key assumption of D4C is a relational ontology of individual and group identities, which fosters the actualization of caring practices as essentially relational and (often) reciprocal. Moreover, D4C adopts the “ecological turn” in CE and stresses the ecological situatedness and impact of concrete projects, envisioning an extension of caring from intra-species to inter-species relations. We argue that care and caring can influence directly some of the phases and practices within the management of (energy) projects and the design of sociotechnical (energy) artefacts and systems. When issues related to “value change” emerge as problematic (e.g., values trade-offs, conflicts), the mid-level guiding principle of care helps evaluate and prioritize different values at stake within specific projects. Although there may be several actors and stakeholders involved in project management and technological design, here we will focus on the professionals in charge of imagining, designing, and carrying out these processes (i.e., project managers, designers, engineers). We suggest that adopting D4C would improve their ability to capture and assess stakeholders’ values, critically reflect on and evaluate their own values, and judge which values prioritize. Although D4C may be adaptable to different fields and design contexts, we recommend its use especially within small and medium-scale (energy) projects. To show the benefits of adopting it, we envisage the application of D4C within the project management and the technological design of a community battery. The adoption of D4C can have multiple positive effects: transforming the mentality and practice of managing a project and designing technologies; enhancing caring relationships between managers, designers, and users as well as among users; achieving better communication, more inclusive participation, and more just decision-making. This is an initial attempt to articulate the structure and the procedural character of D4C. The application of D4C in a concrete project is needed to assess its actual impact, benefits, and limitations.

本文介绍了为护理而设计(D4C)，这是一种独特的项目管理和技术设计方法，由 Care Ethics 提供信息。我们建议将“关怀”概念化为 D4C 的基本价值及其指导的中层原则。作为一种价值观，关怀提供了道德基础。作为一项原则，它为 D4C 提供道德指导以制定关怀流程。后者由一组具体的、通常是递归的、关怀的实践组成. D4C 的关键假设之一是个人和群体身份的关系本体论，它促进了关怀实践的实现，本质上是关系性的和（通常）互惠的。此外，D4C采用CE中的“生态转向”，强调具体项目的生态处境和影响，设想将关怀从种内关系扩展到种间关系。我们认为，关怀和关怀可以直接影响（能源）项目管理中的某些阶段和实践以及社会技术（能源）人工制品和系统的设计。当与“价值变化”相关的问题出现问题时（例如，价值权衡、冲突），中层关怀指导原则有助于评估和优先考虑特定项目中的不同价值。虽然项目管理和技术设计可能涉及多个参与者和利益相关者，但在这里我们将重点关注负责构想、设计和执行这些过程的专业人员（即项目经理、设计师、工程师）。我们建议采用 D4C 将提高他们捕捉和评估利益相关者价值观的能力，批判性地反思和评估他们自己的价值观，并判断优先考虑哪些价值观。尽管 D4C 可能适用于不同的领域和设计环境，但我们建议特别在中小型（能源）项目中使用它。为了展示采用它的好处，我们设想在社区电池的项目管理和技术设计中应用 D4C。采用 D4C 可以产生多种积极影响：转变管理项目和设计技术的心态和实践；加强管理者、设计师和用户之间以及用户之间的关怀关系；实现更好的沟通、更包容的参与和更公正的决策。这是阐明 D4C 的结构和程序特征的初步尝试。需要在具体项目中应用 D4C 来评估其实际影响、收益和局限性。