Growing the Movement

Abstract

Through bottom-up initiatives citizens have the ability to adapt their environment to their own desires and ideas. It is a way to take power and create a city that is truly based on what the residents want, rather than it being opposed on them.

Right now there is a growing movement in the Netherlands where municipalities want to embrace bottom-up initiatives and give the citizens the opportunity to contribute in shaping the city through participation. Citizens are invited to express their opinion or to receive support for their own ideas.

The citizens themselves have to take action to make bottom-up participation happen. However, many citizens are not familiar with the possibilities. As a result, only a small number of citizens participate. Most of the power of participation falls in their hands. This leads to outcomes that are non-inclusive and are often only beneficial for this select group of citizens.

There is, however, a growing group of people who are indeed interested in bottom-up participation but do not act on it as they experience too much resistance and too many obstacles. An opportunity can be found in enabling these interested but inactive citizens to get familiar with initiative information and take action towards durable bottom-up participation. The aim of this project is, therefore, to carefully navigate the present obstacles and explore how to address them with design.

The exploration consists of iterative design sprints combined with the research through design approach, which allows me to chart the citizens participation landscape in a practical and experimental way.

Research through design is the main approach of the thesis in order to get as close to the experienced obstacles as possible. On the basis of fast iterative design sprints several prototypes are tested that actively involve stakeholders. The prototypes are tools to navigate deeper into the context, gain insights and create a clear foundation for the final design.

The knowledge gained through the explorative design sprints ultimately give shape to the following design goal: Design a tool that can enable interested but inactive citizens to get familiar with initiative information and take action towards a durable initiative.

The goal results in Growing the Movement, which is a new participatory tool that guides interested citizens through the biodiversity initiative landscape and its possibilities. Through the tool citizens will acquire a personalized set of cards. The cards will guide them step by step through the multitude of information and invites them to take action in form of biodiversity initiatives. By interacting with the cards the user will be introduced to the possibilities of bottom-up participation. They will be educated and supported in taking biodiversity action to influence their own local environment.