AI for Inclusive and Representative Citizen Participation. How can AI contribute to participation processes that better reflect diverse perspectives and give citizens a stronger voice in municipal decision-making?
In this project, we work with municipalities and citizens to explore how AI can help make public participation more inclusive, representative and transparent. Municipalities are increasingly involving citizens in plans and decisions that affect their living environment. But how can we ensure that not only the most vocal or engaged residents are heard? And how can we make sure that citizens’ contributions genuinely influence decision-making?
The challenge
Citizen participation is an important part of municipal decision-making, but not everyone’s voice is equally represented. Some groups are overrepresented, while others are harder to reach or have fewer opportunities to share their perspectives. Participants may also find it difficult to understand what happens to their input and how much influence they actually have.
The challenge is to design participation processes that better reflect diverse perspectives and give citizens greater influence over decisions. We investigate the dilemmas and tensions municipalities encounter in practice, and explore under what conditions AI can contribute to fairer and more transparent participation processes.
Our approach
This project takes a practice-based approach. We use a research-through-design methodology, which means learning by working with stakeholders to design, test and improve new solutions.
We bring together the experiences of municipal officials, participation professionals and citizens. By examining real-life situations, we identify where participation works well, where tensions or exclusion arise, and which public values are at stake.
We then explore how AI can support new forms of participation. Using the Public Stack framework, we translate public values into concrete requirements for the design and application of technology. The resulting ideas and prototypes are tested in practice together with municipalities and citizens.
Our contribution to the challenge
Through this research, we develop practical knowledge and tools for municipalities looking to integrate AI into their participation processes. We focus not only on what is technologically possible, but also on what is socially desirable and responsible.
The project will deliver design principles, participatory methods and tested prototypes that can help municipalities include a wider range of perspectives, give citizens better access to relevant information, and make it clearer how their input influences decisions.
In doing so, we connect technological innovation with public values and the everyday practice of citizen participation.
The plan
The research consists of three consecutive phases, in which we investigate, design and test solutions together with municipal officials and citizens.
1. Learning from participation practices
We collect and analyse experiences from existing municipal participation processes. During workshops with municipal officials, professionals and citizens, we reconstruct specific situations and key moments. We examine the principles municipalities apply, the values that matter to participants, and where dilemmas, tensions or exclusion arise.
2. Designing with public values in mind
Using the Public Stack framework, we translate these insights into design principles and concrete requirements for AI-supported participation methods. We explore how AI can help include a greater diversity of perspectives, improve access to information and increase transparency.
3. Developing and testing in practice
We develop prototypes and new participation methods, which we test together with municipal officials and citizens in different municipal settings. By testing and refining these solutions, we investigate under what conditions AI can genuinely contribute to more representative participation and greater citizen influence.
Deliverables
The project will produce practical insights, tools and tested applications that municipalities can use to improve their participation processes:
- 9 sessions with municipal officials and citizens to gather experiences, develop ideas and test solutions.
- At least 3 tested participation methods to support more representative citizen participation.
- 5 to 10 design guidelines for the responsible use of AI in municipal participation processes.
- 3 validated prototypes to support transparent feedback on citizens’ contributions.
- Field tests in at least 3 municipal contexts to assess how the developed solutions work in practice.
- Knowledge sharing through the City Deal on AI, with results shared across at least 6 municipalities, ministries and other participating partners.