FixMyStreet (FMS) is a web-based civic participation platform that allows inhabitants to report environmental defects like potholes and damaged pavements to the government. In this paper, we examine the use of FMS in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium. Analyzing a total of 30,041 reports since its inception in 2013, we demonstrate how civic participation on FMS varies between the ethnically diverse districts in Brussels. We compare FMS use to a range of sociodemographic indicators derived from official city statistics as well as geotagged social media data from Twitter. Our statistical analysis revealed several significant differences between the districts that suggested that crowdsourced civic participation platforms tend to marginalize low-income and ethnically diverse communities. In this respect, our findings provide timely evidence to inform the design of more inclusive crowdsourced, civic participation platforms in the future.

The use of ICT-based participation tools in urban design has come into prominence in the last decade. A plethora of technology-enabled participatory tools, techniques, and applications have been developed to facilitate the participation of citizens as well as other stakeholders. This study specifically focuses on ICT-based participation platforms that aim to serve as forums to respond to social and spatial needs. Many studies have reported that the use of these participatory platforms has led to positive outcomes. However, their potentials and limits for facilitating different levels of design empowerment (Senbel and Church, 2011. Design Empowerment. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 31(4), 423–437.) remain unknown. In this context, the aims of this study are: (1) to determine how these platforms empower and restrict citizens’ engagement by analysing a variety of ICT-based participation platforms in Europe, and (2) to determine the factors that can facilitate better participation practices. This research analyses 25 ICT-based participation platforms that go beyond one-sided information exchange. They were chosen out of a database of 106 platforms. These were evaluated according to their objectives, the design action phases in which they are designated to be used, their desired levels of design empowerment and their functionalities. The findings indicate that a majority of these platforms (76%) focused on two particular objectives: problem identification and feedback collection. Only three platforms (12%) enabled users to create their own plans and visions, since empowering citizens to design independently is a challenging task. Many of the platforms aimed at higher levels of design empowerment but failed to provide the required functionalities users need. 40% of the platforms did not have any tools for citizens to track whether their ideas, plans, and projects were implemented or not. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings and identify the key factors for better design practices for ICT-based civic participation platforms.

Turkey is vulnerable to disasters such as earthquakes, flood, and landslides. Millions of housing units are planned to be demolished and rebuilt in the next 15 years within the scope of urban transformation. The existing legal framework and implementations are hardly participatory and thus cause conflicts. The aims of this study are: 1) to address the weaknesses and strengths of urban transformation practices in Turkey critically with a focus on Istanbul, and 2) to develop a new participatory design model for urban transformation processes by making use of contextualised ICT-based participation tools and techniques. This paper critically maps and discusses urban transformation processes in Istanbul by tracing how these practices take place on the ground and considering the different perspectives of stakeholder groups. We present an applicable model that consists of a system of participatory actions, interaction environments such as an expert collaboration platform developed specifically for Istanbul’s urban transformation process.

The extensive use of smartphones in our everyday lives has created new modes of appropriation and behavior in public spaces. Recognition of these are essential for urban design and planning practices which help us to improve the relationship between humans, technologies, and urban environment. This study aims to research smartphone users in public space by observing their altering visual attention and walking behavior, and, in this way, to reveal the emergent “new figures”. For this purpose, Korenmarkt square in Ghent, Belgium, was observed for seven days in 10-min time intervals. The gaze and walking behavior of smartphone users were encoded as geo-located and temporal data, analyzed and mapped using statistical and spatial analysis methods. Developing and implementing new methods for identifying the characteristics of smartphone users, this study resulted in a nuanced characterization of novel spatial appropriations. The findings led to a better understanding and knowledge of the different behavior patterns of emergent figures such as “post-flâneurs” and “smartphone zombies” while uncovering their altering visual interactions with and movements in the public space. The results evoked questions on how researchers and designers can make use of spatial analysis methods and rethink the public space of the future as a hybrid construct integrating the virtual and the physical.

In this paper, we discuss the affordances of open-source Geoweb 2.0 platforms to support the participatory design of urban projects in real-world practices. We first introduce the two open-source platforms used in our study for testing purposes. Then, based on evidence from five different field studies we identify five affordances of these platforms: Conversations on alternative urban projects, citizen consultation, design empowerment, design studio learning and design research. We elaborate on these in detail and identify a key set of success factors for the facilitation of better practices in the future.

This book is designed to be of interest to many different audiences due to its cross-sectoral and transdisciplinary content. It will appeal to those within architectural higher education as well as to spatial practitioners, students, civic and governmental organizations engaged in socio-spatial projects. The book is (1) an academic source of critical and practice-driven knowledge on experiential architectural design learning, (2) provides methods for other ways of learning in the form of design-build and live projects and (3) offers design inspiration for community-engaged spatial practices relevant to both educators and practising architects and designers.