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<\/p>\nThe Mobile City, HvA, UU, and Play the City co-organized this workshop session with Eric Gordon,\u00a0Founding director of Engagement Lab at Emerson College & faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.<\/p>\n
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Eric Gordon co-edited the book\u00a0<\/a>Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice.\u00a0<\/em>Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (2016).<\/p>\n Goal of the workshop<\/strong><\/em> Description of workshop theme<\/strong><\/em> But it is necessary to question the nature of these problems, whose problems they are, and if they\u00a0are, in fact, problems at all. While the shiny new app solves some problems, it surely creates\u00a0others. While big data addresses some gaps in knowledge, it opens others. In this context, there is\u00a0need to harness an intellectual discourse that is both critical and applied, that can create\u00a0knowledge about a digitally enhanced civics, while guiding design for the creation of new\u00a0approaches.<\/p>\n The notion of \u2018civic media\u2019 was introduced first as a design objective meant to foreground the\u00a0affordances of digital technologies for citizen empowerment and community engagement, as a\u00a0counterweight to claims about the negative impact of digital media on social and civic life\u00a0prolific in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the same time the term \u2018civic media\u2019 is also used\u00a0analytically to emphasize the complex relationships between people, technologies, practices and the\u00a0common good, moving away from a more simplistic functionalist paradigm in which civic technologies\u00a0are presented as tech solutions that can be applied to various societal domains. In a civic media\u00a0approach, researchers try to understand the complex ways in which communities use media and Research on civic media often combines analysis of media practices with design and action research. However while this approach can be promising, it also has it criticisms. Civic tech approaches have\u00a0been reproached of \u2018solutionism\u2019, as well as harbouring a\u00a0 \u2018progressive fallacy\u2019. The latter refers\u00a0to the implicit assumption that affordances of digital media for communities to self-organize will\u00a0contribute to progressive goals and more democratic societies. Yet, these same affordances have\u00a0also aided all kinds of exclusionary, populist and even terrorist collectives.<\/p>\n In this workshop, researchers on civic media will discuss their research strategies on civic media.\u00a0Many working in this field see an urgency to contribute to the design of alternative media\u00a0practices that work towards a common good and reinforce public values. How can we build a research\u00a0agenda that is both critical and productive? What approaches of research\u00a0\u00a0 by design have proven to\u00a0be productive, and what issues are in need of further address?<\/p>\n Participation<\/em><\/strong> Participants can apply by sending a brief motivational email, and (if applicable) short description\u00a0and problematization of 1 or 2 cases they would like to bring in \/ present. Applications can be\u00a0sent to b.g.m.de.waal@hva.nl and will be accepted on a rolling basis.<\/p>\n Readings<\/strong> from Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis eds. Civic Media. Technology | Design | Practice\u00a0(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2016).<\/p>\n Organization<\/strong><\/em>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.bijt.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/9780262034272-235x300.jpg\")
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\nThrough the discussion of a number of texts and accounts of their own experiences, researchers will\u00a0discuss the concept of civic media as well as appropriate research frameworks for civic media,\u00a0including \u2018research by design\u2019 approaches. How can we build a research agenda that is both critical\u00a0and productive?<\/p>\n
\nDigital media has significantly impacted how we participate in civic life, including how we gather\u00a0together in groups, interface with public institutions, seek out information, and advocate and\u00a0agitate towards social change. Institutions of all sorts are struggling to adapt\u00a0 to emerging\u00a0digital practices, as they invent, adopt or adapt new tools, and rethink structures of\u00a0participation. Community activists, civil society practitioners, policy makers and technologists\u00a0are searching for viable solutions. Communities of practice have emerged around discourses such as\u00a0the Smart City and Civic Tech, building tools and sourcing data to solve civic problems.<\/p>\n
\ntechnology to achieve or strive for a common good.<\/p>\n
\nFor instance, research through design projects can be aimed at empowering local communities, or
\ncontribute to imaginations of a future society that provides civic alternatives for the neoliberal
\ncommodification and \u2018smart consumer orientated services\u2019 approach that dominates current discourse
\non smart cities, disruptive innovation and creative\u00a0 economies.<\/p>\n
\nIn the workshop a group of about 15-25 researchers will discuss research strategies and
\nmethodologies for civic media. Eric Gordon will present a brief introduction to some of the main\u00a0themes and issues, based on his current book Civic Media. Technology | Design | Practice. In\u00a0addition, participants are invited to bring in and briefly present (5-10 minutes) one or more\u00a0examples of civic media studies (from their own research projects or otherwise) that they would\u00a0like to discuss \/ analyze. A number of texts from the book will be provided as a background for the\u00a0discussion.<\/p>\n\n
\nThe workshop is organized by the Lectorate of Play & Civic Media at the Amsterdam University of\u00a0Applied Sciences and the department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University.<\/p>\n
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