Civic Innovation Research Articles

About the published content on each section

About the published content on each section

Discussion on the Deep Integration of College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship and College Students’ Civic and Political Education under the Background of Data Technology

Abstract Currently, most of the studies related to the integration of innovation and entrepreneurship education into the ideological and political work of college students are theoretical discussions, lacking empirical evidence and rarely quantitative analysis. Based on data technology, this paper explores the deep integration of innovation and entrepreneurship with college students’ ideological and political education. After mining the significance of the integration of innovation and entrepreneurship and college students’ civic and political education, the study utilizes the Bayesian theory and face recognition model to assess the effect of the deep integration of civic innovation and entrepreneurship education from the perspective of emotional change. Its algorithmic model, which is mainly based on classification criteria, recognizes students’ classroom expressions according to the classroom expression classification criteria and the emotion score calculation formula so as to judge the effect of students’ classroom listening. Through empirical analysis, all dimensions of ideological and political education self-efficacy and entrepreneurial values of innovation and entrepreneurship are significantly positively correlated at the level of 0.01. The average value of emotion scores of innovation and entrepreneurship education classes integrating ideological and political education is higher than that of traditional innovation and entrepreneurship classes by 0.04 and by 4 more students. The innovative entrepreneurship classroom integrated with Civic and Political Education has achieved good teaching results among college students.

Civic Innovation in Portugal

Democracy in Portugal is challenged by the lack of awareness regarding decision-making processes, disappointment with quality of life expectations, and a general lack of trust in politics. Citizens' disenchantment with the performance of governors and politicians is reflected in low electoral participation and radicalisation in the public sphere. Despite this, there is a growing inclination towards participatory dynamics and solidarity initiatives. The 50th Portuguese anniversary of democracy in 2024 should draw attention to innovative civic engagement projects that enhance democratic maturity and citizens’ commitment.
 The present article aims to conceptualise citizen innovation, and analyse its practices in Portugal, typify models of civic laboratories, and discuss their effectiveness, focusing on results, particularly those that are managed as a bottom-linked model This study carried out a literature review and analysed four recent initiatives in Portugal. Structured in three parts, it discusses civic labs as settings for structural change and analysis of civic innovation in Portugal.
 The study emphasises equally the transformative potential of collaborative collective action between citizens and communities, particularly when it is mediated and geographically delimited. Citizen labs are seen as valuable spaces for mapping resources, combining knowledge, and experiencing social transformations with low risk. Regarding civic labs governance models, the bottom-linked approach, although with limitations, tends to reveal a strong potential when compared to top-down institutional or bottom-up community approaches.
 Cover page: The conceptual and operative dimensions of the Urban Civic Labs

Unveiling the layers of data activism: The organising of civic innovation to fight corruption in Brazil

Developed by tech-savvy citizens, Rosie is a bot that autonomously checks the public spending of elected representatives of the Brazilian Lower Chamber and uses Twitter to engage peoplein discussing suspicious findings. Rosie is the most visible face of Operação Serenata de Amor (Operation Love Serenade), a data-enabled activism initiative that revolves around the creation, use and dissemination of open data to hold politicians accountable and empower citizens to react against the misuse of public funds. The article draws on an original data set – including interviews, participant online observation notes and secondary qualitative materials – to examine Operação Serenata de Amor, focusing on how material and symbolic elements related to both human and non-human actors shape the organisational patterns of this type of initiative. The findings suggest that there are three organisational patterns, each with further specific challenges, based on the presence of three modes of participation that depend on different types of engagement with digital technologies and data. Findings indicate that data-enabled activism can emerge with typical characteristics and values of tech startups, such as the goal of creating a sustainable budget and providing strategic content by validating it with user feedback, while also retaining some traits of online activism, such as ad hoc and temporal networks of highly autonomous actors concerned with specific contentious issues. In this respect, the eventual demobilisation of Operação Serenata de Amor's initiators due to commercial values and struggles to maintain it active and engaging can be seen as a cautionary tale for data-enabled activism, particularly for initiatives closely associated with civic innovation and social tech startups.

Openness, Innovation, and Sustainability in Museum Organizations

Over the last few decades, social, economic, and technological changes have gradually contributed to modifying the core concept of museum organizations, towards their active involvement in the process of social innovation and territory growth, in accordance with the instances of sustainability. This study investigates how strategic innovation, based on the implementation of an open and sustainable museum model, as a driver of social and civic innovation, can enhance the development of the reference community. To this end, after analyzing the concept of sustainability-oriented innovation in the perspective of openness and shared value, the research investigates the role of sustainability and its specific declinations in museum management, focusing the attention on the experience of the Italian museums in the light of a substantial revision of organization due to a reform in 2014. The theoretical framework is then applied to a case study, the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto “MArTA”, in order to verify the nature and impacts of changes in the museums that take a sustainability-oriented path through strategic and technological innovation. The study provides evidence of the joint and interdependent role of openness, innovation, and sustainability as key drivers in the museums with particular reference to practices adopted to encourage stakeholders’ engagement and to contribute to social, economic, and cultural development.

Artists, government and cross-sector collaboration: A guiding framework of US-based artists in residence in government programs

ABSTRACT Artist in residence in government (AIRG) programs that embed artists within civic work are becoming increasingly popular across the United States. As governments are challenged to shift systems to be more equitable, repair infrastructure and prepare for future crises, cross-sectoral collaboration models offer new ways of working. Cross-sectoral collaboration that embeds artists in non-arts sectors spurs civic innovation and shifts contexts to inspire new ideas and opportunities. This article builds a guiding framework of the characteristics and considerations that shape AIRG programs in order to present possible pathways that can be followed in program development and implementation. Foundationally, each AIRG is unique and responsive to the specific underlying social, political, economic, environmental and cultural preconditions of place. The guiding framework details preconditions, program design and partners, and program structure, followed by an analysis of the challenges and opportunities. Research was conducted on AIRG programs operating in 2020 and 2021.

Civic Innovation Challenge (NSF)

Federal Grants & ContractsVolume 46, Issue 7 p. 2-2 Grant Alerts Civic Innovation Challenge (NSF) First published: 01 March 2022 https://doi.org/10.1002/fgc.32235Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue73 March 2022Pages 2-2 RelatedInformation

Drought and Water Scarcity Management Policy in England and Wales—Current Failings and the Potential of Civic Innovation

Drought management in England and Wales takes place in a narrow, confined governance space. Assessed against current literature on drought management, England and Wales show little innovativeness and little actual willingness to change. We ask how drought and water scarcity management is currently done, who is involved (or not) and, foremost, what are the current problems and deficiencies with current English and Welsh drought and water scarcity management that require attention. We are also interested in the question of what can be done to improve drought and water scarcity management in England and Wales. This research therefore explores how we can create a continuous relationship between the different actors contributing different levels of knowledge and we plead to widen the drought governance space in order to face the current and future water governance challenges. First, we present an empirically based critique of current drought and water scarcity management in England and Wales, highlighting the contrast between available drought and water scarcity management options and what is currently applied in England and Wales. Second, we present and introduce Environmental Competency Groups, a methodology aiming to bring local residents’ experience-based knowledge of water management in relation to particular catchments to bear on the generation of scientific knowledge. It has been successfully trialed in relation to both droughts and flooding in England and Wales. We argue that this is a successful way to bring together people with different perspectives and knowledge in order to overcome the deficiencies of current drought and water scarcity management in England and Wales.

Can Our Schools Help Us Preserve Democracy? Special Challenges at a Time of Shifting Norms.

Civic education that prepares students for principled civic participation is vital to democracy. Schools face significant challenges, however, as they attempt to educate for democracy in a democracy in crisis. Parents, educators, and policy-makers disagree about what America's civic future should look like, and hence about what schools should teach. Likewise, hyperpartisanship, mutual mistrust, and the breakdown of democratic norms are perverting the kinds of civic relationships and values that schools want to model and achieve. Nonetheless, there is strong evidence that young people want to be civically engaged and are hungry for more and better civic learning opportunities. Reviving the civic mission of schools is thus a win-win-win. Adults want it, youth want it, and democracy needs it. We propose three means by which educators and the public can reconstruct our common purpose and achieve civic innovation to help democracy in crisis: support action civics, strengthen youth leadership outside the classroom, and engage both students and adults with "hard history" and contemporary controversies.

Expanding Studio Boundaries: Navigating Tensions in Multidisciplinary Collaboration within and beyond the Higher Education Design Studio

AbstractIn this article the authors set out and critically reflect upon an innovative pedagogical approach to delivering studio‐based learning – drawing on the ‘Collaborative Futures’ project. Collaborative Futures is a live project premised on a futures‐focused design brief written with an external partner. In previous iterations of the project, partners have included Hitachi and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Each year this project brings together a team of students in their final year on the Masters European Design programme to collaborate with a group of early career design graduates. Between 2019 and 2020, the Collaborative Futures project worked with Glasgow City Council’s Centre for Civic Innovation to explore and prototype citizen‐centred scenarios surrounding data experiences set in the context of Glasgow 2030. Throughout the project the student‐graduate team engaged in multidisciplinary collaboration within and beyond the boundaries of the higher education studio context, working with civic, academic and design professionals, public and third sector organisations, and members of the public. The authors reflect on the design process; theoretically unpack the cross‐cultural, studio‐based collaboration that took place; and discuss the complex challenges that emerged and the meditating role design artefacts played. The insights presented in the article have value for design educators seeking new approaches to designing and delivering studio‐based design learning that fosters creative, multidisciplinary communities of practice and collaborative capacity‐building for design students in a professional setting.

Prototipando las instituciones del futuro: el caso de los laboratorios de innovación ciudadana (Labic)

La crisis de confianza en las instituciones ha llevado a estas a buscar nuevos canales que conecten con la ciudadanía. Los laboratorios ciudadanos son, posiblemente, la respuesta más innovadora que ha surgido para crear vínculos y construir una agenda alternativa de desarrollo, impulsando nuevos procesos participativos en el marco de los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible (ODS). Este artículo se centra en un caso concreto, en el de los laboratorios de innovación ciudadana (Labic) de la Secretaría General Iberoamericana, con el objetivo de extraer claves de acción para la renovación institucional. El análisis de su experiencia nos deja cuatro aprendizajes principales: a) experimentar soluciones mediante lógicas de prototipado y ensayo-error; b) transformación sistémica y simultánea en tres planos (ciudadano, institucional y de la cooperación); c) termómetro social de doble funcionalidad, tanto de los problemas como de las soluciones planteadas por comunidades y ciudadanía, y d) trabajar la institución como un sistema orgánico, en continua evolución.

When open source design is vital: critical making of DIY healthcare equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices needed during the COVID-19 pandemic were widely reported in early 2020. In response, civic DIY volunteers explored how they could produce the required equipment. Members of communities such as hacker- and makerspaces employed their skills and tools to manufacture, for example, face shields and masks. The article discusses these civic innovation practices and their broader social implications by relating them to critical making theory. Methodologically, it is based on a digital ethnography approach, focusing on hacker and maker communities in the UK. Communities’ DIY initiatives display characteristics of critical making and ‘craftivism’, as they assessed and counteracted politicised healthcare supply shortages. It is argued that their manufacturing activities during the COVID pandemic relate to UK austerity politics’ effects on healthcare and government failure to ensure medical crisis supplies. Facilitated by open source design, communities’ innovation enabled healthcare emergency equipment. At the same time, their DIY manufacturing raises practical as well as ethical issues concerning, among other things, efficacy and safety of use.

Producers and Consumers Negotiating Scale: Micro-Inventions in Eighteenth-century France and Britain.

This article examines the social embedding of technical inventions in Britain and France in the second half of the eighteenth century. Small-scale artefacts to improve everyday life marked a new relationship between techniques, public culture, and forces of nature. The ways that micro-inventions such as domestic devices were disseminated through print media, models, and exhibitions demonstrate how inventive strategies and public expectations affected innovation. Producers and users interacted to shape market inventions. Solutions to the problem of ventilation highlight how the dynamics of scale shaped technical inventions, enabling their promotion as multidimensional objects of social reform. Indeed, conceptualizing technologies as scalable transformed prior perceptions of humans' ability to harness nature (such as making noxious air breathable). Civic improvements and industrial innovation also fostered a new materiality, changing how societies perceived their natural environment as well as their impact on it.

Key Success Factors of Social Entrepreneurs in Lebanon

This paper aims to identify and analyze the key success factors of some active Lebanese social entrepreneurs. Lebanon represents a developing context characterized by stark cultural and economic divides with weak governmental institutions. A multi-level research approach was adopted for this study that empirically draws on interpretive research methodology and explores the research question based on in-depth interviews with eight social entrepreneurs in Lebanon. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to understand key success factors of social entrepreneurs within a complex multi-layered system (micro, meso, and macro) of interdependent variables that shape social entrepreneurial ambitions and activities in order to grasp the experiences and perceptions of social entrepreneurs in specific contexts. Our study identified critical success factors for social entrepreneurs, and it isolated from among them salient factors particularly pertinent in developing contexts, such as the role of social networks, social inclusion skills, and civic innovation capabilities.

What Is a Citizen Innovation Lab and What Is It For? The Case of LABICxlaPaz

Citizen Labs have become a frequent strategy of governments to respond to new social demands. Based on the principles of open innovation and collaborative governance, they emerge as hybrid institutions for the co-production of policies. However, we still know little about the features that define them and their scope. This article aims to provide more information about what happens inside these spaces through a specific experience: the fourth edition of the Laboratories of Civic Innovation (LABIC) promoted by the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), held in February 2018 in Nariño, Colombia, and oriented towards the construction of policies for peace. First, a theoretical review about the definition and the characteristics of a laboratory is proposed, to later address the LABICxlaPaz case study. The research is based on field work carried out during the thirteen days in which the laboratory took place and reinforces the hypothesis that, due to its experimental and unstructured nature, the greatest potential of these initiatives is to add a social value to innovative technological solutions that otherwise would hardly be achieved, beyond the specific results on limited ocassions and possible to achieve by other means. Finally, some reflections on its strengths and limitations are raised in order to stimulate the debate.

Understanding the Information Architecture for Civic Innovation, Research, and Evaluation

Efforts to collect, manage, transform, and integrate data across administrative systems into actionable knowledge to inform better policy decisions are becoming more common. However, the technical processes, procedures, and infrastructure they employ vary substantially. Variety in approaching data infrastructure, transfer, linking, and security is expected in this emerging field, but both established and developing efforts would benefit from cohesive guidance regarding the technical considerations of data integration, with focus on presenting a range of options that can be weighted based on context specific restrictions (e.g. cost, staffing, or existing infrastructure).
 Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), MetroLab Network, and the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, are convening a working group to shape and develop guidance on information architecture and technical approaches for data integration efforts such as those in the AISP and NNIP networks and the AISP Learning Community. This guidance will help newly emerging efforts as well as established ones looking to update their current approach. It will also inform policymakers and researchers who need a primer to better understand the technical components and considerations at play for data sharing and integration. This presentation will present findings, best practices and recommendations from this brief that will be released in Fall 2018.

Librarians as Critical Infrastructure in Data Ecosystems

Across the US and around the world, a growing number of public sector, educational, and nonprofit organizations have been sharing data with one another. These organizations hope to increase transparency, enhance efficiency and service quality, improve communities, encourage public participation, develop new knowledge, and foster civic innovation. While there are many success stories around data sharing, there is a growing awareness that the act of publishing data will not always result in community impact. Data intermediaries are often needed to help people extract value from data, and to help producers make good decisions about what and how they publish.
 In Pittsburgh, our local civic data ecosystem is unique in that both public and academic librarians are actively involved as data intermediaries, and they work in close collaboration with other intermediaries, data publishers and users in a variety of ways. Librarians play a number of roles, including helping people discover information, building data literacy and technical skills, providing technical assistance in data management and documentation, creating feedback mechanisms to publishers, convening and hosting events, and connecting data users.
 Our experience shows that libraries and librarians should be key actors in the continuing development of data ecosystems and act as core data intermediaries; their expertise adds value to a wide range of issues that affect both data publishers and users. In this talk, I will share insights gained through the Civic Switchboard project, which aims to develop the capacity of libraries in civic data ecosystems.

From Organizations to Organizational Fields: The Evolution of Civic Innovation Ecosystems

From Organizations to Organizational Fields: The Evolution of Civic Innovation Ecosystems

Soluciones tecnológicas a problemáticas sociales y ciudadanas. El caso de los Retos Cívicos y Públicos en México

El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar el proceso de innovación cívica que, basado en soluciones tecnológicas y en iniciativas abiertas, propone la organización de la sociedad civil Codeando México para la atención y respuesta a problemáticas sociales y ciudadanas en México. Se abordan y describen las iniciativas Retos Cívicos y Retos Públicos como experiencias de innovación en la implementación de estrategias tecnológicas para la solución de problemáticas sociales y ciudadanas. Se reflexiona sobre la adopción cívica de TICs y su irrupción en los procesos de innovación, así como el impacto que tienen en la conformación de un nuevo ecosistema cívico. Por último, se hace mención de las estrategias de Hacking cívico y Comunidades Cívicas que la organización Codeando México promueve como modelo para la vinculación y la participación ciudadana en el marco de la innovación cívica.

Visionary Politics: Technologies of Government in the Capital of Innovation

ABSTRACTTaking up experiments in “civic innovation” as windows into the making of new urban worlds, I attempt in this essay to map out the parameters of a novel framework for municipal rule and account for the conditions underlying its ascendance in San Francisco, CA. I explore how productions of urban space and nature today serve as the means and objects of an emerging mode of government premised on yoking all forms of urban activity to the dictates of innovation. When proponents of civic innovation pursue particular forms of intervention in the built environment to constitute urban subjects as human capital, they imbibe, reproduce, and enact normative notions about the nature of the city as a problem to manage. Though the project of civic innovation is neither complete nor inevitable, the political vision animating it entails the subsumption of urban life as such within a rubric of decision making modeled on the market.