Can meaningful participation take place on virtual platforms?

Annemie Wyckmans (moderator, Professor at NTNU, co-author of SCIS Citizen Engagement Solutions Booklet, +CityxChange coordinator)

Javier Burón (speaker, colaborativa.eu, author of Citizen Participation Booklet of +CityxChange)

 

Session description:

The second session will be moderated by Annemie Wyckmans, co-author of the SCIS Citizen Engagement Solutions Booklet. The discussion will deal with the question if the virtual environment provides the space for meaningful participation. The topics will span the differences between virtual, digital, and physical formats and what constituents are crucial for different types of engagement. The open conversation between academia and practitioners will be preceded by a short presentation of Javi Burron (colaborativa.eu) who will present the Citizen Participation Playbook of the project +CityxChange.

Questions:

• What is meaningful participation and how to plan it?
• What are potentials and risks of virtual, digital, and physical engagement? Where can we combine and build upon them?
• Do we “lose touch” with virtual meetings?

 

Annemie Wyckmans | Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Annemie is professor and leads NTNU Smart Sustainable Cities at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Architecture and Design. In 2020, she was selected as the Mission Innovation Champion for Norway and co-authored the Citizen Engagement Solution Booklet of the EU Smart Cities Information System.

Her main goal is to promote smart sustainable cities, through research, innovation and education. Annemie leads several open innovation-based projects and platforms with the public and private sector in Norway, EU and China. Amongst others, she is Coordinator of the +CityxChange smart city lighthouse project, the EERA Joint Programme on Smart Cities, the Horizon Europe Norwegian Urban Partnership and the URBAN-NORWAY-CHINA Innovation Platform o n Sustainable Urbanization. Annemie’s projects/platforms typically aim to merge ambitions of clean energy in cities with sustainable, resilient, inclusive and safe communities (SDGs 11 and 7). The projects/platforms are created as safe spaces in which stakeholders from the public and private sector, academia and civil society can come together, discuss, test, fail, try again and eventually find good solutions for their local environment. A bridge that helps the experts and citizens to come together and innovate.

Javier BurónGarcia | Founder of Colaborativa.eu, Spain/Ireland

Javier BurónGarcía is an architect living and practicing between Spain and Ireland. He is co-founder of Colaborativa.eu, a design and tech studio based in Córdoba exploring new ways of making digitally, working creatively, and sharing collectively. Over the years he has also co-founded two creative hubs in his hometown in Córdoba. Javier lectures at the School of Architecture, University of Limerick and is the founding director of Fab Lab Limerick, a space for makers in Limerick city. He was part of the Irish team at the 11th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, awarded with the Maker of Merit Award at maker Faire Rome and shortlisted on the young Spanish architects award Arquia Proxima. In 2019, Colaborativa.eu published the Citizen Participation Playbook as part of the project +CityxChange.