Shenja van der Graaf - Co-Creation and Smart Cities: Looking Beyond Technology

The idea for this book is a derivative outcome of a co-creation workshop organised by the Data, Governance & Communities (previously, Smart Cities) Unit during the 2018 Strategic Days of Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology (imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel). The focus at that time was on listing and developing co-creation methods and tools that were being, or should be used, in many of our city-related research projects. Over time, this ambition shifted towards offering a critical, thorough, yet practical introduction on how to facilitate and optimise citizen involvement by implementing and deploying co-creation methods within cities, thereby putting public value at the centre of future development in the increasingly complex, multi-stakeholder ecosystem of urban public and private entities.

We would like to explicitly thank Jonas Breuer, Francesca Spagnoli, Laura Temmerman and Mehdi Montakhabi for their contributions. Jonas, your view on co-creation helped to design the flowchart and to keep the privacy and ethical aspects of co-creation in view. Francesca, your input and link with Living Labs helped to frame the design principles on co-creation as well as the various methods and tools for the co-creation flowchart. Laura, your practical insights helped to further streamline the co-creation flowchart and helped to finalise its last puzzles. Finally, Mehdi, thank you for your help with lay-outing, referencing, and being supportive throughout the process. This book would not have been possible without your contributions.

We are grateful for the many lively discussions, intellectual stimulation, puzzled looks, and interrogations we got from our colleagues (Smitters) during Unit and other meetings and the occasional water cooler or hallway conversation. In particular, a big thank you to Nils Walravens, Bram Lievens, Olga Tsoumani, Jaco van der Bank, Koen Borghys, Ruben DHauwers, Ine van Zeeland, Annelien Smets, Rob Heyman, Ilse Marin, Simon Delaere, Jo Pierson and, last but not least, Pieter Ballon.

A very special thank you to Wim Vanobberghen. You are Epic and you know it.

Also, we would like to express our words of gratitude to a decade of colleagues, spread across Europe, UK, South Africa and USA, whom we collaborated with on numerous research projects, Living Labs, City of Things (Antwerp), and other settings.

A special thanks for all the interviewees who provided a testimonial and words of wisdom about their experiences with co-creation: Lieven Raes (Informatie Vlaanderen), Matteo Satta (Issy-les-Moulineaux), Rib Drabs (Luchtpijp), Martijn de Waal (The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), Paulo Calada (Porto Digital) and Inese Viktorija Grospine (The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of the Republic of Latvia).

Our colleagues at the University of Twente, especially, Alexander van Deursen, Sjoerd de Vries, and Ren Torenvlied, thank you for your warm welcome, guidance and support.

Thanks also to Francesco Catania for your ideas, and for being a much needed sounding board. And, to our (extended) families and friends, thanks for bearing with us.

Shenja, Le Anh, and Carina

July 2021

The city of Carouge (Switzerland) occasionally engages in co-creation activities with citizens and other stakeholders co-creation is viewed as a social network, meaning that if nobody participates, it is unlikely to survive.

The city of Eindhoven (The Netherlands) often deploys co-creation to involve citizens, entrepreneurs, and organisations in developing policies and tailored projects, in particular. Co-creation is said to be a prerequisite for the well-accepted implementation and the functioning of the citys smart services, especially those directed at improving the quality of life for its citizens.

The city of Helsinki (Finland) uses co-creation constantly, especially, to develop digital services and to open up data and application programming interfaces, as well as for urban planning activities.