NISTH Think Out: Debate Series

Citizen Participation for Smart City Governance

July 06, 2021 NISTH Season 1 Episode 4
NISTH Think Out: Debate Series
Citizen Participation for Smart City Governance
Show Notes

This debate is jointly organised by NISTH and the DesignLab from the University of Twente (UT), Netherlands. Two UT experts Prof Peter-Paul Verbeek and Dr Sabine E. Wildevuur, will share the stage with Dr Natalie Pang and Assoc Prof Hallam Stevens.

Prof Verbeek and Dr Wildevuur will bring the Netherlands perspective while Dr Pang and Prof Stevens share their views from the Singapore standpoint.  The panel will be moderated by NISTH Director, Prof Vanessa Evers.

Governments base many of their decisions on scientific advice and scientific research. This does not always result in an adequate representation of the concerns of citizens, as the protests against COVID-19 policies in some countries have shown. To engage citizens more explicitly in policy-making, therefore, citizen science could play an important role. This ‘bottom up’ type of research, in which citizens are actively involved in scientific research, makes sure that citizens are not only represented in the politicians they elect, but also in the research on which politicians base their decisions. This panel will investigate how citizen science and policy-making could come together. How to develop such ecosystems? What are conditions and enablers? And how to learn from intercultural differences?