This seminars main emphasis is to examine public participation forms, which are trying to influence environmental decision-making. Different modes of ”offline” and ”online” participation will be discussed, especially looking at the latter, examining the Friday for Future movement and the era of social media participation. To properly comprehend how public participation in all its forms have an impact on environmental decision-making, climate governance, especially locally, has to be elaborated. The local level is important as cities are the key actors in climate mitigation and adaptation, and they have developed into sites of innovative urban climate governance that can spur on climate action. The seminar will further look at concepts of smart city governance. Smart city concepts and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are having an impact on local action in combating climate change. The concepts are trying to pave the way for the transition from current fossil fuel to renewable energy, as for example Smart grids are doing. However, do smart city concepts promote a ”invited” space, where the public are able to shape environmental decision-making, or does the public have to ”create” spaces, to actively try to influence decision-making? How does the Internet affect citizens in trying to create spaces to participate?
Students do not need any prior knowledge of climate governance and political participation concepts, when attending this seminar. This course should give a broad understanding of current research in the field of political participation and climate governance.
Regular exercises must be completed in order to acquire the academic performance. The examination consists of a term paper (10-12 pages long), which should critically reflect participation forms online or offline, trying to impact climate governance.
Alber, Gotelind/ Kern, Kristine (2007): ”Governing climate change in cities: modes of urban climate governance in multi-level systems”, OECD Conference on Competitive Cities and Climate Change; 9-10 October, Milan: 2008
Scholl, Hans J./ Scholl, Margit C. (2014): ”Smart Governance: A Roadmap for Research and Practice”, In: Proceedings of the 9th iConference, M. Kindling and E. Greifeneder, Eds. Berlin, Germany: Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS), 2014: 163-176.
Viale Pereira, Gabriela/ Cunha, Maria A./ Lampoltshammer, Thomas J./ Parycek, Peter/ Gregianin Testa, Maurício (2017): ”Increasing collaboration and participation in smart city governance: a cross-cass analysis of smart city initiatives”, In:Information Technology Development, 23 (3), 526-553.
Vissers, Sara/ Dietlind, Stolle (20114): ”TheInternet and new modes of political participation: online versus offline participation”, In: Information, Communication & Society, 17 (8), 937-955.
Wahlström, Mattias, Piotr Kocyba, Michiel De Vydt, and Joost de Moor. 2019. Protest for a Future: Composition, Mobilization and Motives of the Participants in Fridays For Future Climate Protests on 15 March 2019 in 13 European Cities. Available online:
http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/6536/1/Protest%20for%20a%20future_GCS%2015.03.19%20Descriptive%20Report-2.pdf
(accessed on 06th of December 2019).
- Lehrende/r: Indra Jasmina Smith