Bochum, 13 March 2024
New technologies are changing society and have long characterised the everyday lives of many people. In recent years, our cities in particular have often become test environments for the use of new technologies: Autonomous vehicles, intelligent energy systems or automated waste or water management – so-called smart city projects can also be found in large numbers in the Ruhr region. But what do citizens actually think about the use of technology in smart grids, traffic management systems or data dashboards?
In future, researchers at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies in Bochum will be investigating how citizens accept and embrace smart technologies in cities. The “Digital Democratic Innovations” research programme led by Prof. Dr Christoph Bieber has received funding of 170,000 euros as part of the Volkswagen Foundation ‘s “Transformational Knowledge about Democracies in Transition – Transdisciplinary Perspectives” programme to develop and implement innovative participatory research formats in the field of technology acceptance. The funding was applied for in cooperation with the Smart City Innovation Unit of the City of Bochum, as the practical application of the research and the exchange with non-scientific partners were at the centre of the call for proposals. The Volkswagen Foundation is funding a total of ten task forces for twelve months each with a total volume of around 1.9 million euros.
The “Pop-Up Citizen Lab: Social Acceptance of Urban Innovations” project was created at CAIS when researchers from various disciplines analysed the political aspects of smart city initiatives in the Ruhr region. Communication scientist Pauline Heger and psychologist Niklas Frechen are researching the acceptance of technological innovations in urban areas and have designed a new form of exchange with the “Citizen Labs”: “Our aim is to familiarise ourselves with innovative green technologies together with citizens and to develop new opportunities for participation in order to actively support cities on their path to climate neutrality.” After the programme starts in April, the researchers in Bochum will have one year to investigate the connections between the introduction of new technologies and various forms of citizen participation. Does it make a difference if citizens are involved in transfer processes at an early stage? What does contemporary participation look like and how can trust in public institutions be strengthened? The results developed in the Citizen Labs will be evaluated together with the Smart City Innovation Unit of the City of Bochum and transferred into recommendations for action and workshops so that other cities can also learn from them and work with the innovative methods.
About the CAIS
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has been funding the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum as a central institute for digitalisation research on a long-term basis since April 2021. By proposing evidence-based solutions, the CAIS contributes to shaping digital change in the interests of people. CAIS was founded as a research college at the beginning of 2017 and has been awarding fellowships to national and international guest researchers in the field of digitalisation research ever since. The first research programme “Digital Democratic Innovations” was launched in October 2021, and the second research programme “Educational Technologies and Artificial Intelligence” has been running since mid-2022. In April 2024, the third research programme “Design of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence” will begin its work. The research programmes interlink the disciplines from social sciences and humanities to computer science and test research results in practice.