Ethical Future Environments: Engaging refugees in Smart City participation

Abstract

Aiming to improve quality of life for their citizens, cities and environments regions are becoming increasingly smarter. Smart City research and practice has put emphasis on the importance of citizen-centric processes, collaborating with citizens and other stakeholders, as well as public values in Smart City projects. Nevertheless, cities and governmental organizations continue to adopt technology-push approaches, marginalized citizens such as refugees are often excluded in (urban) digitalization and decision-making processes. Despite their different and valuable perspectives, collaborating with marginalized citizens is not common practice, as it often requires a different approach than traditional citizen participation techniques. During this workshop, we will discuss with Smart City practitioners and refugees how we could broaden participation to include citizens who are still excluded, using a visual card-based game to discuss topics in the Smart City context that are relevant to participants. The expected outcomes of this workshop are an understanding of opportunities for involving marginalized citizens (in this workshop: refugees) in Smart City projects, different perspectives of stakeholders involved, and the setting up of a learning and caring community in which different stakeholders can share their insights and practices.