Municipalities increasingly seek to include citizens in decision-making processes regarding local issues, such as urban planning. This paper presents a case study on using Virtual Reality (VR) in a process of civic participation in the redesign of a public park. The municipality included citizens in intensive co-design activities to create three designs for the park and engaged the neighbourhood community in co-decision, in the form of a ballot. Through the civic participatory process, we studied the effectiveness of using VR technology to engage the community in participating in the co-decision process. The three designs were presented using highly realistic 360˚ visualisations and the effects on engagement were compared between various devices: VR headsets, smartphones, tablets, and computers. Viewing the designs in 2D paper plans was also included in the comparison. The study included over 1300 respondents that participated in the ballot. A statistical analysis of the collected data shows that participants viewing the 360˚ rendered images with VR technology expressed a significantly higher engagement in the co-decision process than those using their computer at home or viewing 2D paper plans. The paper describes the complete participatory design process and the impact of the e-governance used on the target group as well as on the actors organizing the e-governance process. We discuss how the use of new technology and active presence of a voting-support team inspired citizens to participate in the co-creation process and how the investment in this procedure helped the local authorities to generate support for the plans and strengthen its relationship with the community. The use of realistic visualisations that can be easily assessed by citizens through user-friendly technology, enabled a large and diverse audience to participate. This resulted in greater visibility of municipal efforts to enhance the living environment of citizens and is therefore an important step in increased civic engagement in municipal policy-making and implementation.
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Information literacy is essential for the operation of a civic society in which all people may participate (Catts & Lau, 2008). The aim of the Fact Checking Factory (FCF) is to accomplish cooperation between students and local citizens. We aim to create an agenda for local decision-makers with the project objectives of fact-checking local news. http://ecil2018.ilconf.org/#
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Lower levels of news use are generally understood to be associated with less political engagement among citizens. But while some people simply have a low preference for news, others avoid the news intentionally. So far little is known about the relationship between active news avoidance and civic engagement in society, a void this study has set out to fill. Based on a four-wave general population panel survey in the Netherlands, conducted between April and July 2020 (N = 1,084) during a crisis situation, this research-in-brief investigates the development of news avoidance and pro-social civic engagement over time. Results suggest that higher news topic avoidance results in higher levels of civic engagement. The study discusses different explanations for why less news can mean more engagement.
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The HAS professorship Future Food Systems is performing applied research with students and external partners to transform our food system towards a more sustainable state. In this research it is not only a question of what is needed to achieve this, but also how and with whom. The governance of our food system needs rethinking to get the transformative momentum going in a democratic and constructive manner. Building on the professorship’s research agenda and involvement in the transdisciplinary NWA research project, the postdoc will explore collective ownership and inclusive participation as two key governance concepts for food system transformation. This will be done in a participatory manner, by learning from and with innovative bottom-up initiatives and practitioners from the field. By doing so, the postdoc will gain valuable practical insights that can aid to new approaches and (policy) interventions which foster a sustainable and just food system in the Netherlands and beyond. A strong connection between research and education is created via the active research involvement of students from different study programs, supervised by the postdoc (Dr. B. van Helvoirt). The acquired knowledge is embedded in education by the postdoc by incorporating it into HAS study program curricula and courses. In addition, it will contribute to the further professional development of qualitative research skills among HAS students and staff. Through scientific, policy and popular publications, participation in (inter)national conferences and meetings with experts and practitioners, the exposure and network of the postdoc and HAS in the field of food systems and governance will be expanded. This will allow for the setting up of a continuous research effort on this topic within the professorship via follow-up research with knowledge institutes, civic society groups and partners from the professional field.
In dit project wordt onderzocht hoe je burgers niet alleen kunt betrekken maar ook aan het roer kunt zetten bij de invulling van de ambitieuze doelstelling om als stad energieneutraal te worden.Een Positive Energy District (PED) brengt alle elementen van de energietransitie samen op een locatie: energieopwek, energieopslag, energiegebruik, energiebesparing, balancering en transport. Ontwikkeling, eigenaarschap en acceptatie van dit nieuwe socio-technische arrangement zijn onderwerp van het onderzoek. In het nieuwe speelveld komen volgens Grunneger Power niet 2 helften, maar drie helften bij elkaar: burgers, bedrijfsleven en overheden. Wij menen dat er nog een vierde belangrijke speler is: kennisinstellingen. Dit betekent dat een transdisciplinaire benadering van het onderzoek gewenst is, waarin het centrale thema wordt benaderd vanuit verschillende disciplines enerzijds en diverse maatschappelijke stakeholders anderzijds.In het onderzoek wordt een aanpak ontwikkeld die aansluit bij de beleving van gewone burgers. De aanpak identificeert concrete stappen die burgers kunnen nemen en benoemt randvoorwaarden die borgen dat zij daartoe ook de ruimte krijgen. Deze randvoorwaarden hebben onder meer betrekking op het beleid van de gemeente, de manier waarop het PED, inclusief technische en sociale aspecten, wordt ingericht, welke oplossingen bedrijven aanbieden, en tenslotte hoe de lokale energiebeweging en hun achterban optimaal bij het PED betrokken kunnen worden.De ontwikkeling van de City Vision 2050 in WP1 begint met het betrekken van burgers: 'Launching a co-creation process, engaging stakeholders and citizens from the very beginning. This can facilitate the early identification of social barriers and foster future acceptance of the changes.' Ook in de 'Follower Cities' is dit het geval: 'Citizen and stakeholders engagement. Once the area is selected, the engagement strategy will be launched to ensure a relevant participation of local actors in the process, in order to maximize acceptability and replicability. At least civic centres and individual citizens will be invited to participate in some sessions, focused on collecting needs and opinions and making them participants of the definition process.'(p.46).In dit project wordt onderzocht hoe je burgers niet alleen kunt betrekken maar ook aan het roer kunt zetten bij de invulling van de ambitieuze doelstelling om als stad energieneutraal te worden.Een Positive Energy District (PED) brengt alle elementen van de energietransitie samen op een locatie: energieopwek, energieopslag, energiegebruik, energiebesparing, balancering en transport. Ontwikkeling, eigenaarschap en acceptatie van dit nieuwe socio-technische arrangement zijn onderwerp van het onderzoek. In het nieuwe speelveld komen volgens Grunneger Power niet 2 helften, maar drie helften bij elkaar: burgers, bedrijfsleven en overheden. Wij menen dat er nog een vierde belangrijke speler is: kennisinstellingen. Dit betekent dat een transdisciplinaire benadering van het onderzoek gewenst is, waarin het centrale thema wordt benaderd vanuit verschillende disciplines enerzijds en diverse maatschappelijke stakeholders anderzijds.In het onderzoek wordt een aanpak ontwikkeld die aansluit bij de beleving van gewone burgers. De aanpak identificeert concrete stappen die burgers kunnen nemen en benoemt randvoorwaarden die borgen dat zij daartoe ook de ruimte krijgen. Deze randvoorwaarden hebben onder meer betrekking op het beleid van de gemeente, de manier waarop het PED, inclusief technische en sociale aspecten, wordt ingericht, welke oplossingen bedrijven aanbieden, en tenslotte hoe de lokale energiebeweging en hun achterban optimaal bij het PED betrokken kunnen worden.De ontwikkeling van de City Vision 2050 in WP1 begint met het betrekken van burgers: 'Launching a co-creation process, engaging stakeholders and citizens from the very beginning. This can facilitate the early identification of social barriers and foster future acceptance of the changes.' Ook in de 'Follower Cities' is dit het geval: 'Citizen and stakeholders engagement. Once the area is selected, the engagement strategy will be launched to ensure a relevant participation of local actors in the process, in order to maximize acceptability and replicability. At least civic centres and individual citizens will be invited to participate in some sessions, focused on collecting needs and opinions and making them participants of the definition process.'(p.46).
PUBLIC PLAY SPACE promotes innovative and creative practices for the co-design of inclusive, cohesive and sustainable public spaces, through the use of games and digital technologies, in a transnational and European perspective, fostering the process of placemaking.Participation of citizens in the design of the public space is recognized as fundamental to build inclusive, cohesive and sustainable public space. As local governments grow more and more interested in civic participation, it becomes important to explore available methodologies addressing challenges related with participatory processes. Games have been proposed since the 1960s as a means of facilitating participatory processes by enabling cooperative environments to shape and support citizens’ interaction. The change led by Information and Communication technologies opens the debate on how advanced technologies, from video games to Virtual and Augmented Reality can help to open the process of co-creation to new audiences, enhancing citizen participation, both with respect to the design and space usage. PUBLIC PLAY SPACE aims to explore the process of development and use of innovative video-games for public space co-design through a wide range of actions targeted at education, knowledge production, debate rising and audience development; it will focus on the following actions:- On-line platform development;- State of the art book development;- 3 Creative & Capacity building workshops on advanced video-games co-development;- 3 Open-Game Events / Public space co-creation workshops with citizens (T: Neighbourhood associations, young people, citizens);- A Co-created touring exhibition on Games for placemaking, taking place in 6 cities;- 1 symposium on games for co-design;- Public Play Space experience book.
