Diverging research idea
November 12, 2020
Converging
November 24, 2020
Pitching / partnering
December 17, 2020
AM main themes in their urban development projects are ambitious: sustainability, inclusive city, healthy urban living & working, happy living and participatory development. They are eager to explore how the UvA team can help them to reflect on their practices and increase the potential of smart city developments.
With that in mind, the aims of the three workshops in November and December were to:
Step 1: diverging research ideas
The meetings started with presentations from BAM Infra and AM about their current Smart City projects, their ecologies of partners and questions. These presentations and the following Q&A set the scene for the academics to brainstorm relevant research questions from their ongoing CUS research themes for smart cities. In the first round, a large number of themes were identified, after which couples were formed to explore bridges between the research themes. The brainstorm results were grouped into content-related and process-related research themes (See the jamboard below). Especially the question of 'smart city labelling' and the social side in planning and development were identified as particularly important and interesting. But also the right handling and 'reuse' of data to analyse and improve the current situation and processes turned out to be one of the main focuses.
Step 2: converging
The second workshop was dedicated to the process of convergence - from the full jamboard towards a number of main research themes:
During the workshop (and afterwards) these three groups of questions were then translated into draft research agendas with the key questions, methods and possible connections with the projects of BAM Infra and AM. These agendas were further developed and pitched back to practice partners. This final CUS Smart City Research Agenda is summarized below.
Step 3: pitching / collaborating
Smart city, smart data & smart citizens research questions:
Research questions on “Smart city”:
How are smart city ambitions defined by the various actors (e.g. businesses,
government, professionals, citizens, societal organizations?)
Which problems –defined by whom?- are sought to be solved by these smart city
ambitions?
How are these smart city ambitions actually reflected/embedded in
organizational structures, work approaches and implementation practices of the
various actors involved?
What components and indicators are used to implement, monitor, evaluate these
“smart” ambitions and who defines them?
Research questions on “Smart data’’:
What kinds of data, information and knowledge are considered necessary –and by
whom?- to realize the smart city ambitions formulated?
Which “smart” (=sensor-driven, automated) and “non-smart’’ (=non-ICT-based) data
collection and analysis practices are currently in use?
What benefits and drawbacks do these data practices present to different
Stakeholders?
Research questions on ‘’Smart citizens”:
With which ambitions and how are citizens contributing to “smart’’ city programs /
processes?
How are citizens’ contributions employed in the processes?
Which benefits and disadvantages of citizen engagement are experienced in
current practices?
What are hindering and stimulating factors in citizen engagement?
Methodologies, data collection, analysis:
Relation with health, sustainability and scale
Research questions:
To what extent and how can smart technologies be used for dynamic health and resilience planning and governance?
Methodologies, data collection, analysis:
Participation, collaboration and knowledge in “smart city” projects
Research questions:
How to include other actors than experts? At what stage what kinds of participation are needed? What new forms of participation are needed in “smart” planning processes?
How can citizen knowledge be mobilized in “smart city” planning? What are the potential inequalities of access to knowledge and algorithmic decision-making? How does the use of smart technology change the role of citizen knowledge?
How do players actually use data from “smart” data collecting in practice?
To what extent can this form of knowledge production lead to an innovative/new planning process? What are the characteristics of this planning process? What are the characteristics of a ‘smart planning’ process?
Methodologies, data collection, analysis:
also after completion)
interviews, focus groups with employees and partners)