Walkshops for Citizen Involvement: Walk the Talk with Smart City Citizens

When making decisions on introducing new technologies into public space, policy makers or project leads do well to involve citizens. Reasons to do so can be democratic legitimisation of such decisions, legal requirements, potential surveillance concerns, or building trust among the population. In practice, involving citizens proves challenging and complex. For one, not everyone is knowledgeable enough to make informed decisions about sophisticated technological systems. Another reason is that the citizenry is not one homogeneous group and representation of all its elements is difficult, especially in larger cities. We propose a methodology for involvement that addresses several of these challenges: taking them for a walk in the “smart city”. Walk-shops turn data collection in public space into an embodied experience, while walks are democratic in the sense that participants from heterogeneous backgrounds can participate. Moreover, a free-ranging discussion “on the ground” can spark serendipity and lead to unforeseen innovative ideas.