This article is written by Carine Hawkins, communications manager for Sharing Cities, an EU-funded programme addressing pressing urban challenges cities face today across ten smart technology solutions.

Getting together with family, friends and colleagues is the backbone of civic life, or at least, it used to be.

The impact of prolonged social distancing on our social ties, well-being and civic participation, coupled with the looming climate and economic crises, is giving many of us cabin fever. And it’s leading some communities to re-evaluate the systems upon which their relationships are built.

In government, it’s fair to say that the impact has been profound. As we gear up for the long, arduous stretch of this crisis, it’s time to look seriously at how governments can use the digital media and technology to improve civic engagement.

I have worked in communications and community engagement for almost ten years and have witnessed a shift in the way that governments approach citizen engagement to promote sustainable initiatives. In this article, I will explore four methods of empowering citizens through tech: digital democratic processes, bottom-up citizen engagement, collaborative planning systems, and improved connectivity.

Citizen engagement goes digital

Today, technology is everywhere.

One of the upshots of that is that governments can use this new technology to improve digital forms of civic participation.

In recent weeks we’ve seen a growing trend in the “low-code” approach. This enables public sector organisations to rapidly build digital services and emergency applications to support their community and deploy them at scale — all with minimal coding involved.

It's not hard to envisage a future in which apps are developed and maintained by citizens, for citizens

Low-code approaches have been used in the crisis by Croydon Council in Greater London and Adur and Worthing on the southern English coast to quickly assess the status of key services, connect volunteer services with communities, and manage the application and payments of business grants.

There is great potential for these types of applications to fuel civic life beyond the current emergency.

“Councils are experiencing a resurgence of local citizen activism alongside their increased familiarity with doing democracy online,” writes Eddie Copeland at the London Office of Technology and Innovation, “they should embrace the opportunity to go further and experiment with digitally-enabled innovations to local democratic processes.”

Built upon existing and crowdsourced data, it’s not hard to envisage a future in which apps are developed and maintained by citizens, for citizens. This would mark a radical shift in the role of governments, enabling them to play more of a mediating role between communities, using tech as a tool for greater civic participation. It is crucial that digital transformation roadmaps are designed to account for possible future changes of ownership.

The best approaches are bottom-up

The world isn’t just facing a pandemic — we are also in a climate crisis. Already, many cities are taking action and it’s clear that the transition to more energy-efficient cities will require governments to make citizens feel part of the solution, not the problem.

Embracing bottom-up approaches and harnessing citizens’ ambition to drive change will allow governments to gather and use data insights to better inform evidence-based policymaking

At the pan-European smart city programme Sharing Cities, we have developed the Digital Social Market (DSM) in collaboration with Connected Places Catapult, a citizen engagement tool supporting cities in achieving their sustainability goals.

The DSM can help authorities incentivise positive behaviours amongst their citizens. For example, shopping locally, using greener transport and reducing energy use, in exchange for real and virtual rewards. A pilot implementation of the DSM in London incentivises people to reduce or shift their energy consumption to alleviate pressures on energy and environmental systems at peak times. With millions of new remote workers, scaling-up a tool such as the DSM in this way could bring significant benefits.

In a similar vein, the city of Vienna will launch a carbon-free culture pass where car-free journeys can be converted into tokens redeemable at cultural venues.

Embracing bottom-up approaches and harnessing citizens’ ambition to drive change will allow governments to gather and use data insights to better inform evidence-based policymaking.

City planning needs an upgrade

City planners can use technology to create more effective forms of collaborations between citizens and developers and benefit communities at large.

In Wellington, New Zealand, virtual reality and GIS (geographic information system) has been used to map scenarios and inform communities of potential risks of shocks and stresses linked to rising sea levels, and display the impact these will have on neighbourhoods and the city’s assets.

Dublin City Council commissioned a 3D model of the Docklands’ Strategic Development Zone to identify pinch points for pedestrian and cyclists. The model was used in virtual and augmented reality to gather community feedback on the design of a new pedestrian and cycling bridge.

In the UK, it has been acknowledged that citizen engagement practices in the planning system are often underused and underpowered. This was highlighted in the Future Cities Catapult report Plantech that explores how planning could evolve with the application of new digital tools.

The use of tech in the planning system should support community consultation rather than override it.

Connectivity can boost inclusion

By using data insights and improving connectivity for citizens, governments will be able to deliver more efficient public services, especially within vulnerable communities. Better connectivity can also foster better social inclusion, especially within the education sector, as more immersive and interactive learning experiences are becoming available online and open to all.

The aftermath of the pandemic requires a cultural shift in how we think about the role of technology and data in our lives

Data insights can help governments to identify citizens at risk and implement a more coordinated response. During the lockdown, London Borough of Camden has launched a service for local businesses and tech companies to donate laptops to school children whose education is most affected by closures.

The Liverpool 5G Testbed Project has used technology to assist vulnerable communities with the management of loneliness, helping older people to live independently in their own homes for longer, and improve communication between hospitals and the community.

What happens next?

The aftermath of the pandemic requires a cultural shift in how we think about the role of technology and data in our lives. This process doesn’t just start by investing in greater tech capabilities.

A big challenge for governments will be creating trust in new systems and government technology at a time when data sharing and use is under increasing public scrutiny.

We must be prepared for new generations of autonomous citizens armed with the tech skills to perform their civic duties and contribute to community life with greater self-sufficiency.

If governments learn to share ownership of technology in a way that protects individual rights and privacy and re-invest positive outcomes back into their communities, then digital citizen participation may soon become the new backbone of civic life. — Carine Hawkins

(Picture credit: Unsplash)