Toolbox Smart Participation
Intelligent digital citizen participation formats as a supplement to analog participation opportunities


Intelligent digital citizen participation formats as a supplement to analog participation opportunities
Smart Participation means intelligent participation. Citizen participation is a great way to open up the social debate and give people in Dresden a voice to help shape it. In order to reach today's heterogeneous and mobile urban society, participation formats must be developed intelligently, both analog and digital. They should be low-threshold, flexible, broadly effective and thematically open.
As part of the project, the Smart Participation toolbox for Dresden aims to test new formats for citizen participation. A low-threshold, comprehensive participation of the population in urban issues is to be promoted by bundling digital and analog offerings. The processing of citizens' concerns and inquiries is to be made more efficient for the administration and more transparent for citizens through smarte work processes and digital support.
The "Toolbox Smart Participation" project aims to strengthen citizen participation in Dresden through an intelligent combination of digital and analog participation offerings. This applies both within the administration in terms of the ability to participate and outside the administration with a citizen-friendly range of intelligent participation opportunities.
The WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture at the TU Dresden develops its own participation tools such as the co-design tool U_CODE and tests the effectiveness of tools and formats such as citizen participation workshops in the model districts. The needs and ideas of the population are evaluated and communicated to the city administration.
The core of the project is the "Digital Citizen Participation Concept Dresden", which documents existing and newly tested participation formats and instruments. This concept is a model construction kit that is to be dynamically developed further for other participation topics and formats. This construction kit should also be usable and transferable for other municipalities.
The "Citizens' Lab" format is being tested on Kreuzstrasse near the New Town Hall. It is a physical location where administration, science and institutions can enter into an exchange with citizens (physically and digitally). As part of the project, the "Citizens' Lab" format will be further developed both in the City Forum and with the "Citizens' Lab Toolbox" in Dresden's districts and neighborhoods.
Smart Participation serves as a model for improving citizen participation. Through the systematic analysis and evaluation of participation processes, insights are gained that can contribute to the development of innovative communication methods and tools.
Smartricher participation formats create synergies between public administration and business. Companies can benefit from the experience gained in citizen participation and develop new approaches to involving their target groups.
Targeted surveys and analyses of citizens' concerns generate valuable data for cooperative urban development. In future, this data can also be incorporated into the economic development of Dresden.
New digital tools are being tested in real-world laboratories to help all stakeholders from business, science, administration and citizens to better coordinate their respective interests.
WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture is a research group at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University Dresden. As an interdisciplinary think tank, it researches, advises and shapes issues of Smart City at the interface between planning and design sciences with the humanities and social sciences.
State capital Dresden
Office for Urban Strategy, International Affairs and Citizenship
Dresden University of Technology
WISSENSARCHITEKTUR - Laboratory of Knowledge Architecture