Citizen-Centered Design in Urban Planning: How Augmented Reality can be used in Citizen Participation Processes

Augmenting Community Engagement in City 4.0: Considerations for Digital Agency in Urban Public Space

“…Analysis of digital activism and citizen science [18,[32][33][34] has highlighted the power for communicative technologies to empower individuals and social movements, such as the global effects of #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter; however, the fact that these issues can transcend national boundaries can sometimes be to the detriment of their relevance or impact at the local level [18]. Alternatively, e-participation research will often investigate digitally mediated participation at a more local or state level, although this tends to revert to a focus on participation in planning or governance processes [4,35,36]. Ultimately, while there is a growing amount of research looking into the implementation of novel technologies at a local level, most of the focus lands on how these technologies can augment planning processes.…”

“…Furthermore, community engagement is a broad term used in an urban context to describe the different types of engagement from citizens in urban issues [3]. While research can often discuss this in terms of participatory planning [4][5][6], we utilize the term community engagement because it is a term shared by both researchers and city administrations alike.…”

“…Participatory and collaborative approaches particularly look at broadening the base of stakeholders involved, and especially at 'giving a voice' to traditionally marginalized groups [9,10]. The community engagement literature has seen a few interesting new developments in participatory design methodologies [11], interventions within public space [9,12], or applications of novel technologies [4] that address the challenge of inclusion. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of QR codes and remote communication, whilst Facebook's announcement of their 'metaverse' plan brings concepts of mixed reality and blockchain to the mainstream, offering new opportunities for technologically mediated interactions in community engagement processes.…”

“…In the context above, augmented reality (AR) is gaining attention as an enabler of situated engagement [17], improved urban conversation [18], and participation in cities [4]. AR allows digital information to be situated in physical space, so in an urban context, development details can be shared between stakeholders at the physical location or displayed and embodied at scale.…”

“…The main affordance of AR-to overlay digital information over the physical world-is touted as a key driver in encouraging engagement with planning proposals, or in consulting with citizens about future developments [5,18,19]. Whilst there has been research into what this can mean for co-design in participatory planning, it is noted that the greater political systems in place still ultimately decide the face of participation in any given engagement process [4]. As such, a critique of AR or the implementation of any novel technology in cities is that, while the technology may offer new interactions, without a fundamental shift in the political relationship between councils and citizens, the technology will simply offer new opportunities for top down 'engagement theatre' and consensus building activities.…”