Studies on community-based environmental monitoring, sustained civic engagement and new opportunities in journalism

In the presented work, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, like sensors and their applications, have been investigated from a socio-technical perspective focusing on civic purposes of the technologies’ use. The aim of the work is to gain a better understanding of civic IoT and its transformative potential for society. Therefore, the overarching research question is: What are the societal implications of the technological object civic IoT? Three application areas identified as highly relevant have been studied: community-based environmental monitoring, sustained engagement of civic tech initiatives, and the “Journalism of Things.” In the first study, the civic IoT initiative Luftdaten.info dedicated to the community-based monitoring of particulate matter in the air was examined. The initiative is organized within limits of technical equipment, resources, and academic knowledge. The case study comprises a media content analysis, a web application analysis, and two expert interviews. The data illustrates that the local air pollution topic is a discursive long-term process striving towards a more sustainable city and community. The findings show that the information provided by Luftdaten motivates certain people to become aware and engaged for their local environment, and some to change their behavior. I found that the initiative itself is managed in a sustainable way being inclusive and resource-saving. The media content analysis shows that events around the emergence of the Luftdaten initiative had a certain influence on the local media agenda. Finally, a data map comparison shows how easily misunderstandings in the representation of monitoring data can occur when taking different decisions during the data analysis and visualization of almost identical datasets. In the second study, two long-lasting civic tech initiatives of global scale were investigated to understand what makes them sustain over time. We conducted two mixed-method case studies of the initiative Luftdaten.info from Germany and the initiative Safecast from Japan. We combined social network analysis and qualitative content analysis of Twitter data with insights from expert interviews. Drawing on our findings, we identified a set of key factors that help the studied civic tech initiatives to grow and last. Contributing to Digital Civics in HCI, we argue that the civic tech initiatives’ scaling and sustaining are configured through the entanglement of (1) civic data both captured and owned by the citizens for the citizens, (2) the use of open and accessible technology, and (3) the initiatives’ public narrative, giving them a voice on the environmental issue. In the third study, Journalism of Things (JoT) as a new paradigm in digital journalism was investigated. Three case studies on recent award-winning journalism projects in Germany were conducted with the analytical lenses of boundary work and objects of journalism. The study comprises interviews with journalists, media content analyses, and observations of virtual public events. The findings suggest four typical phases in JoT projects: formation, data work, presentation, and ramification. Blurred boundaries of journalism towards science and activism become apparent when co-creative JoT teams apply scientific methods and technology design while mobilizing communities. Findings further show that things (or objects) of JoT have implications on the configuration for collaborative arrangements and audience relations. By creating and disseminating new local knowledge on matters of common concern, JoT is also contributing to empowering both journalism and citizens. This dissertation is a cumulative work comprising three peer-reviewed scientific publications

Amplifying Quiet Voices: Challenges and Opportunities for Participatory Design at an Urban Scale

Many Smart City projects are beginning to consider the role of citizens. However, current methods for engaging urban populations in participatory design activities are somewhat limited. In this paper, we describe an approach taken to empower socially disadvantaged citizens, using a variety of both social and technological tools, in a smart city project. Through analysing the nature of citizens’ concerns and proposed solutions, we explore the benefits of our approach, arguing that engaging citizens can uncover hyper-local concerns that provide a foundation for finding solutions to address citizen concerns. By reflecting on our approach, we identify four key challenges to utilising participatory design at an urban scale; balancing scale with the personal, who has control of the process, who is participating and integrating citizen-led work with local authorities. By addressing these challenges, we will be able to truly engage citizens as collaborators in co-designing their city

Measuring and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Active Citizenship Education Programmes to Support Disadvantaged Youth

This edited volume focuses on measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of diverse formal and informal educational programmes and activities across Europe. This publication contributes to the field by offering more empirical evidence as to the effective ways in which education can reduce social gaps in civic and political engagement. As editors, we prioritised the contributions of early-career researchers and those who have adopted fresh approaches and topics and highlighted helpful strategies to improve social equality and provide a more equitable distribution of learning resources among underprivileged groups. After two years’ close collaboration among academic editors, journal editors and authors, this Special Issue has finally been released in 2021 with eight papers. Inter alia, three papers focus on the school’s role in developing young people’s citizenship competences, such as knowledge, skills, interests and attitudes towards diversity. Two articles explore exclusion/minority groups cases, indicating valuable lessons for developing tailored educational materials and/or activities for hard-to-reach groups. As a unique contribution, two more papers emphasise experimental studies: the paper written by Steven Donbavand and Bryony Hoskins provides a comprehensive and systematic review of all the experimental designs on promoting political participation, whereas the submission written by Sven Ivens and Monika Oberle unpacks some details on how a digital intervention operates and improves to produce satisfying outcomes

Beyond Transactional Democracy: A Study of Civic Tech in Canada

Technologies are increasingly enrolled in projects to involve civilians in the work of policy-making, often under the label of 'civic technology'. But conventional forms of participation through transactions such as voting provide limited opportunities for engagement. In response, some civic tech groups organize around issues of shared concern to explore new forms of democratic technologies. How does their work affect the relationship between publics and public servants? This paper explores how a Civic Tech Toronto creates a platform for civic engagement through the maintenance of an autonomous community for civic engagement and participation that is casual, social, nonpartisan, experimental, and flexible. Based on two years of action research, including community organizing, interviews, and observations, this paper shows how this grassroots civic tech group creates a civic platform that places a diverse range of participants in contact with the work of public servants, helping to build capacities and relationships that prepare both publics and public servants for the work of participatory democracy. The case shows that understanding civic tech requires a lens beyond the mere analysis or production of technical artifacts. As a practice for making technologies that is social and participatory, civic tech creates alternative modes of technology development and opportunities for experimentation and learning, and it can reconfigure the roles of democratic participants.Comment: Will appear in CSCW1 202

News Media Literacy and Political Engagement in High School Civics Education

The task of teaching civics to secondary students has been complicated by a constantly changing media environment and declining political involvement by young people. Youth are not equipped to interpret the vast amounts of information they consume on their phones and computers (Breakstone et al., 2018). At the same time, civics education has not prepared students to be engaged citizens in democracy (Vercellotti & Matto, 2016). Considering these factors, this study attempted to analyze whether teaching a news media literacy unit increased the political engagement levels of high school students, as some other studies have shown. Thirty high school students were surveyed using a single-subject, quantitative research design as a part of action research. Participants took the sixteen-question survey at the beginning of the research period, engaged in five lessons on news media literacy, and then answered the same survey questions a second time. The survey, originally developed by Ashley et al. (2017), measured political engagement using four categories: political knowledge, political trust, political activity, and political efficacy. The results of the study revealed that the news media literacy unit had the greatest impact on political trust, such as students’ belief in the honesty of the government. There were slight increases in students’ political knowledge and activity. The data showed that the news media literacy unit had a minor impact on the internal and external political efficacy of participants

Sacred Civics

Sacred Civics argues that societal transformation requires that spirituality and sacred values are essential to reimagining patterns of how we live, organize and govern ourselves, determine and distribute wealth, inhabit and design cities, and construct relationships with others and with nature. The book brings together transdisciplinary and global academics, professionals, and activists from a range of backgrounds to question assumptions that are fused deep into the code of how societies operate, and to draw on extraordinary wisdom from ancient Indigenous traditions; to social and political movements like Black Lives Matter, the commons, and wellbeing economies; to technologies for participatory futures where people collaborate to reimagine and change culture. Looking at cities and human settlements as the sites of transformation, the book focuses on values, commons, and wisdom to demonstrate that how we choose to live together, to recognize interdependencies, to build, grow, create, and love—matters. Using multiple methodologies to integrate varied knowledge forms and practices, this truly ground-breaking volume includes contributions from renowned and rising voices. Sacred Civics is a must-read for anyone interested in intersectional discussions on social justice, inclusivity, participatory design, healthy communities, and future cities