Replicate
Years active: 2016-2021
Funded by EU Horizon 2020
The city of Bristol partnered with two other European cities to successfully bid for a large European Union Horizon 2020 smart city project (total approx. Euro: 25million). The project lasts for 5 years (2016 – 2021) The project is managed by the local municipality with around 16 partners including small and medium sized enterprises, community organisations as well as academic partners working on technology implementation and other evaluation.
The stated ambition of the project is that a ‘co-creation’ approach would enable innovative, replicable Smart City services to emerge in dialogue between citizens and project team that tackle familiar urban problems such as traffic congestion, poor air quality and unsustainable energy use.
We were asked to research the citizen engagement activities on the project. Our research aimed to explore the way that citizens, and their learning, were imagined and included in the project in order to uncover and explore the learning models and practices of citizen involvement in the project. We were particularly interested in the participation of those often marginalised from conversations about digital, urban design.
Our methods involved in depth empirical work including ethnographic observation over the period of two years, involving observations of nine whole project team days, twenty-seven other meetings, including group meetings, ten workshops held with local organisations and citizens, and the production of in-depth fieldnotes from these meetings and events.
Details on how citizen learning was discussed by these project partners were carefully noted and any changes over time specifically recorded. We also conducted twenty face-to-face interviews with project partners and organisations involved or affected by the project.
Principal investigator
- Helen Manchester
Co-researcher
- Gillian Cope