Abstract
This article introduces the concept of ‘place-based civic tech’ — citizen engagement technology co- designed by local government, civil society and global volunteers. It investigates to what extent creating such a digital space for autonomous self-organization allows for the emergence of a parallel, self-determining and more place-based geography of politics and political action. It finds that combining online tools with offline collaborative practices presents a unique opportunity for decentralization of power and decision-making in a manner which both politically motivates civil society and begins to update the infrastructure of democracy. The discussion is supported by a combination of primary and secondary data, with research methods including ethnographic and participatory observation techniques. Research data is drawn from a range of empirical sources, including an in-depth case study of the radical municipalist movement in Spain. The article concludes that there is a clear and compelling narrative of cities taking power back, in the form of a plural and globally networked movement. As such, this study contributes to both the theory and practice of civic tech, collective impact, municipalism and place-based urban politics while emphasizing the need for further research on experiments and movements currently existing below the academic radar.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Journal of Peer Production |
Volume | 13 |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Bibliographical note
© 2018 by the authors, available under a CC-BY licenseFunder
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 674962Keywords
- civic tech
- decentralization
- open source
- place-based
- democracy
- political action
- municipalism
- radical
- collaborative
- participatory
- Madrid