7/29/2019 [DRAFT Research Proposal] Placebook: How technology is changing the relationship between citizenship and place?

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2A. ABSTRACT OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Research Problem: In light of events like the Arab Spring, we ask:How are mobile devices andservices changing public space and its relationship to expressions of citizenship? This research willprovide insight into how technology is transforming the use of public spaceby communitiesforexpressions of citizenship, particularly economic, educational and political assembly. The noveltyhere is pushing research surrounding mobile technology beyond known issues of connectivity and

consumption into the unthought-of implications for citizenship and spatial usage. It will generatenew ideas for how place and technology will provide support for citizens as the future unfolds.Goals and aims: The goal of this research is to deepen our understanding of the effect technologyhas on place, and how that information might be put to use to create more engaged communities aswell as create places that offer more to the e-Citizens of the future.Significance: There are exciting things happening in terms of citizenship and place. From a surgein communities self-organising and gathering in local halls, to more sharing groups andcooperatives that manifest in public car parks;1 all increasingly organised with the help of onlineservices being accessed through mobile devices (phones, tablets, laptops) by people in public

places. Recent events like the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall St draw attention away from the benefitsof technology and expose anxiety around its usage.2 However, these examples point to the increased

ease with which communities can organise using mobile devices and services, then effectively scalethat organisation from a community to a national level. With sustainability and productivity takingcentre-stage in built environment research and with a reduction in public space due to privatisation,3critical questions go unanswered: Is mobile technology changing the nature of public space? Whattype of space needs to be provided to support the e-Citizen in our transforming cities?Background: My PhD and early work investigated mobile technology in construction,4subsequently I have been exploring its impact on space, urbanisation and understanding.5 Now Iwish to build on that work to investigate technology's impact on people's use of the builtenvironment, establishing me as a key researcher in this area. A well-established relationship exists

between space and citizenship; the Agora and Forum were historically vital in the expressions ofcitizenship mentioned in my opening paragraph. Key scholars such as Alexander, De Certeau andHanna Arendt continue to locate public space as a key element in economic, political andeducational expression6 (the three subjects of focus for this research). While currently there isdisparate research on mobile technology and public perception,7 economy,8 and commerce,9 only afew design theorists such as Richard Coyne (this project mentor) and Chris Speedwith whom Ihave previously collaboratedare exploring technologys impact on peoples use of the builtenvironment.10 This research will deepen our understanding of how public spacein combinationwith mobile devices and servicescan positively support citizenship and avoid its breakdown.Method: Using qualitative research methods: (A) My case study will be a local community ofartists and craftspeople with existing difficulties in the identified areas of economic, educationaland political assembly. I will establish their current needs and develop possible future scenarios. (B)

Using mobile devices and services, I will develop innovative technologies and strategies addressingthese scenarios. (C) I will deploy these technologies/strategies for the community and analyse therole of public spaces and technology in educational, economic or democratic activities; as well astracing expansion of these activities beyond a community level to a regional or national scale. Datawill be collected through the prototype technologies and focus group sessions periodically duringthe research, to assess what is supporting or hindering the scenarios, and how technology ischanging the relationship between people and place? This helps me develop new ideas on the futureof technologically supported public space, but also assists the community in taking action now.Outcomes: (1) A series of technologies/strategies to empower a community through economic,

political and educational activities. (2) High quality publications in Leonardo and Journal ofArchitectural and Planning Research. Dissemination through online media, activities and research

advertised through local press as well as relevant conference presentations such as Pervasive andUbicomp. (3) Annual workshops to disseminate research and stimulate knowledge exchangebetween academia, community groups and relevant stakeholders. (4) Rigorous analysis andidentification of important factors and key themes to fuel my future research in this area.

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2B. REFERENCES

1 Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, Whats Mine Is Yours: The Rise of CollaborativeConsumption (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).

Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1999).

2 Giovanni Rodriguez, Occupy Wall Street: The Technology Platform,Forbes, 2012,http://www.forbes.com/sites/giovannirodriguez/2011/11/23/occupy-wall-street-the-technology-

platform/.

Tal Pavel, The Internet and Mobile Phones in the Service of the Revolution, The Guardian,2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network-partner-zone-publici/internet-mobile-revolution.

3 Rowland Atkinson, Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and

Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces, Urban Studies 40, no. 9 (2003): 18291843, http://usj.sagepub.com/content/40/9/1829.short.

4 Dermott McMeel, The Artistry of Construction,Architecture (Edinburgh University, 2009).

Dermott McMeel, Richard Coyne, and John Lee, Talking Dirty: Formal and InformalCommunication in Construction Projects, in CAADFutures: Learning from the Past, ed. BMartens and A Brown (Vienna: sterreichischer Kunst- und Kulturverlag, 2005), 265274.

5 Dermott McMeel and Chris Speed, Dynamic Site: Learning to Design in Techno-socialLandscapes,Leonardo 46, no. 1 (2013).

Dermott McMeel, Energy Patterns and Urbanisation, in Workshop Position PaperPresentation at Mobisys: The 10th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications

and Services (Lake District, UK: ACM, 2012).

Dermott McMeel and Robert Amor, Construction AIDs: Augmented Information Delivery,inProceedings of ConVR the 11th International Conference on Construction Applications forVirtual Reality, ed. Hans-Joachim Bargstdt and Karin Ailland (Weimar, Germany, 2011),392402.

6 Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein,A Pattern Language: Towns,Buildings, Construction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).

Michel De Certeau and Steven Rendall, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkley, Los Angelesand London: University of California Press, 1984).

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition. (New York: Doubleday, 1958).

7 Chris Speed and J Southern, CoMob: a Locative Media Workshop Exploring the PublicUnderstanding of pollution (Belfast: ISEA International Symposium for Electronic Arts,2009).

Mark Ward, Mobile Snaps Reveal Invisible Art,BBC, 2007,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6938244.stm.

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Steve Mann, Jason Nolan, and Barry Wellman, Sousveillance: Inventing and Using WearableComputing Devices for Data Collection in Surveillance Environments, Surveillance & Society1, no. 3 (2003): 331355, http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles1(3)/sousveillance.pdf.

8 Jeremy Rifkin, The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy,the Economy, and the World(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).Manuel Castells, The Rise of The Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society andCulture (Blackwell Publishing, 2000).

9 Richard Coyne, Cornucopia Limited: Design and Dissent on the Internet(Cambridge, Mass:MIT Press, 2007).

J S Brown and Paul Duguid, The Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business SchoolPress, 2000).

10 Richard Coyne, The Tuning of Place: Sociable Spaces and Pervasive Digital Media(Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2010).

Chris Speed, Developing a Sense of Place with Locative Media: An Underview Effect,Leonardo 43, no. 2 (2010): 169174,http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/leon.2010.43.2.169.

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2C. ROLES AND RESOURCES

Mentor Input: Professor Richard Coyne

Professor Coyne has been the recipient of over 1,500,000 of external UK and European researchfunding as PI and AI over the last 5 years on projects that deepen understanding of place, media and

interaction such as Branded Meeting Places (328,298), Moving Targets (1.2million) andInflecting Space (51,000). As mentor his experience in project management of this type ofresearch, scale of activities and logistics of working with non-academic community groups willhelp ensure a successful programme of research and outcomes.

Career development: Dermott McMeel

The events of the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall St in particular mark an important change inassumptions regarding public space, citizenship and mobile technology. While it features in the

press and has received attention and reflection from the social sciences, there remains anopportunity for me to undertake a substantial programme of research to shed light on and gaininsights into how citizenship and the use of place are being affected by mobile technology like

laptops, iPads and smartphones, and the proliferation of mobile services, as well as how thisimpacts on the provision of public space and its design.

The larger research funding landscape in New Zealand (BRANZ and MBSI) in architecture andtechnology focuses almost exclusively on benefits from sustainability and productivity; my Facultyhas aligned its research to those themes. My research into in the long-term societal impacts oftechnology on place and how we can plan for those changes now, largely falls outside this fundinglandscape, with the Marsden Fund being the notable exception.

I am an emerging researcher, and I believe this programme of research is a good match to Marsdenas it is blue-sky research, and the impact of this transformation of place due to technology is ofinternational significance. A Marsden grant to support the programme of research would establishme as one of the key architectural researchers and theorists in this emerging area.

Resources

I will be undertaking almost all of the research myself with the following exceptions. I will requirestaffing in the form of one technical assistant to help with the implementation of technologies andstrategies, as well as one additional assistant to record and collate the audio-visual materials fromeach scenario and organise and record materials from the focus groups. In both these instances Iwill be closely supervising these aspects of the research. There will be expenses for organising eachscenario mentioned in the research proposal and developing/testing technology. The specifics will

be defined as each scenario is refined but I will need to provide mobile services (WiFi), and devices(mobile phones/tablets where applicable) and establish community support strategies in a variety offorms that will include temporary workshop accommodation, travel and websites.