Smart Participation for Social Learning

Dr Richard Bull With Marouane Azennoud ICTPI June 2015

Smart Participation for Social Learning

What’s in a name? (Jong et al 2015)

• Sustainable cities • Green cities • Digital cities • Smart cities •  Intelligent cities •  Information cities

• Knowledge cities • Resilient cities • Eco-cities • Low-carbon cities • Liveable cities • Low-carbon liveable cities

“Do any of them lead to: better city, better life”? Jong et al found: •  The terms are not interchangeable •  ‘Sustainable city’ is the most common term •  ‘Low-carbon city’ is viewed as a sub-set of sustainable

city whereas smart city is viewed as a new concept with particular connotations around integrated building and technological fixes.

Industry

The concept of a Smart City goes way beyond the transactional relationships between citizen and service provider. It is essentially enabling and encouraging the citizen to become a more active and participative member of the community, for example, providing feedback on the quality of services or the state of roads and the built environment, adopting a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle, volunteering for social activities or supporting minority groups. Furthermore, citizens need employment and “Smart Cities” are often attractive locations to live, work and visit.

UK Policy?

EU Policy?

Is this a smart city? Narratives of city smartness and their critical assessment (Huber and Mayer 2015)

1.  The Instrumental Perspective: Information And Communication Technology For Improved Resource Efficiency

2.  The Administrative Perspective: Backcasting, Transversal, Systemic Action And Measurement Of Results

3.  The Governance-perspective: The Learning, Interactive And Creative City

“When citizens become involved in working out

a mutually acceptable solution to a project or

problem that affects their community and

their personal lives, they mature into responsible democratic citizens and

reaffirm democracy” Tom Webler et al

Engagement

Examples of participatory processes (adapted from Petts and Leach 2001)

Purpose Classification Example

Education and information

provision

Traditional Leaflets, advertising,

unstaffed exhibits/displays

Information and feedback Traditional Surveys/questionnaires,

staffed exhibits/displays

Involvement and

consultation

Innovative consultative Workshops, focus groups

Extended involvement Innovative deliberative Community Advisory

Committees, Citizens Juries,

Deliberative Mapping.

An example of Smart Citizen engagement • Hampshire ran out of landfill • Experienced a failure (a failed planning application) • Decided to ‘seriously’ engage the community on their new waste strategy • Formed a partnership • Insisted on further public engagement

A relational framework of engagement

The effects of engagement on learning

Partnership working is capable of achievements that would not be feasible if individual partners worked in isolation. (Frederickson 2007)

• Technical benefits to management of waste

• Transfer of knowledge • De-politicised waste • Healthy context/

environment for engagement and behaviour change (at both individual and organisational level)

Issues  to  ponder.  .  .    • Whose definition of a smart city? • Who’s benefiting (and/or profiting) from the smart city?

• Where does the ‘power’ lie?

• Engagement is more than ‘information’ and ‘feedback’ • Of course the obvious question is this – do citizens want

greater involvement in their cities? • The lessons from Hampshire would suggest you can’t

afford not to

References/further reading •  Bull, R., Lemon, M., Everitt, D., & Stuart, G. (2015). Moving beyond feedback:

Energy behaviour and local engagement in the United Kingdom. Energy Research & Social Science 8 32-40

•  Bull, R., Irvine, K., Rieser, M., Fleming, P (2013). Are people the problem or the solution? A critical look at the rise of the smart/intelligent building and the role of ICT enabled engagement. ECEEE Summer Study Conference Proceedings 2013, pp. 1135-1145; 5A-079-13

•  Bull, R., Petts, J., & Evans, J. (2008). "Social Learning from Public Engagement: Dreaming the impossible?" Journal of Environmental Management and Planning 51(5): 703-718.

•  Jong et al (2015) Sustainable-smart-resilient-low carbon-knowledge cities; making sense of a multitude of concepts promoting sustainable urbanization. Journal of Cleaner Production.

•  Huber A., & Mayer, I. (2015) Is this a smart city? Narratives of city smartness and their critical assessment. ECEEE 2015