Designing Technology-Mediated Democracy: Case Citizen Participation in Urban Planning through Mobile Apps

How can technology improve local democracy? Governments around the world seek opportunities to engage citizens in matters of public policy through a variety of technology-mediated tools. The tools are intended to contribute to democratic ideals such as transparency and inclusiveness, but how these ideals can be met in practice is not clear. In this paper, I examine this question through the case of citizen participation in urban planning though smartphone apps, or mobile participation.

Smartphones are seen as tools to engage a broad audience in urban planning, in particular youth and young adults who do not participate in traditional public meetings. By reviewing a broad range of relevant literature in urban sociology, democracy theory, and interaction design, I examine the conditions, requirements and design principles that must be met for this objective to be attainable.

The findings of the review show that building technologies for participation requires taking into account a broad range of factors, such as social norms, trust and reputation, motivation, opportunity, feedback and dialogue. Participation on-the-go from a specific location also raises the question of who owns a tool with which to participate as well as issues of privacy in a public setting. I conclude that citizen participation needs to move past present shortcomings and become a sustainable process grounded in democratic principles.