smart communities connect jcm gs

Can social media promote a “meaningful” relationship between communities and local authorities? Lessons from Aveiro, Portugal

José Carlos Mota ([email protected]) & Gonçalo Santinha ([email protected])

Department of Social, Political and Territorial SciencesUniversity of Aveiro - Portugal

POLITICS, LEADERSHIP & STRATEGIC GOVERNANCECan technology give a voice to our communities?

Session 5

This presentation…

a) Argues that increased community engagement in policy making creates important benefits

b) Underlines the importance of social media in these processes

c) Presents a practical case (City of Aveiro, Portugal): the roots and impacts of three related civic initiatives

JCMota & GSantinha SMART COMMUNITIES CONNECT - WORLD TOWN PLANNING DAY 2012 Online Conference, 6-7 November

Public participation, community engagement and Social Media

� Public participation & community engagement

� A core component of the official discourse

� The involvement of citizens in decisions about and the

implementations of social and economic change

� Purpose 1: the right for citizens to be involved in the

policymaking process and that their contribution may

promote more sustainable and resilient solutions

� Purpose 2: the increase of public accountability for

decisions concerning the allocation of public resources


� The introduction of ICT is making its own powerful

contribution, hand-in-hand with other societal trends


� Most eGovernment research and practice over the past

years has focused on the notions of i) eServices/

eAdministration and ii) eDemocracy/eParticipation

Considered as a silo, a rather separate add-on to e xisting organisations and processes

�� providing inputs for public-policy purposes mostly within formal systems

Not applied in a joined-up manner across government functions

� In recognition of this importance, the notion of

‘eGovernment’ has become a major focus within EU main

strategic guidelines (e.g. eEurope 2005, i2010, Digital

Agenda - one of flagships of Europe 2020)


� Participation (with the “e” contribution) working well is a

one-piece of a government’s broader policy of openness,

transparency and collaboration

� Although new ICT is not the main cause of wider

government changes, it can certainly be a key enabler and

driver of them

� Social media are creating a way of participation that allow

users to be: i) (not only) passive consumers of content

and services, ii) (but also) active contributors and

designers in their own right � can act as drivers for

collective engagement

A practical case: drawing on experience


a) Amigosd’Avenida: a civic movement created in the city of Aveiro (Portugal);

b) Contra o Alboi Cortado ao Meio;

c) Contra a Ponte Pedonal


Aveiro in Europe

Case 1-Amigosd’Avenida: a civic movement


• A collective blog, • A civic platform, • A collaborative dynamic,• A ‘place’ to debate the future

of Aveiro


• after a public debate regarding the future of one of its main and historical avenues (2008) a blog & mailing-list were created

• a virtual gathering place to share each ones’ opinion about the avenue and other related subjects;



in four years (2008-2012)

Blog: • 3.000 posts; 120.000 visits;

200.000 pagevisits;Mailing-list: • 340 members & 1.000 messages;

inspired other civic movements and social media networks• Facebook Group ‘Aveiro 2020’

(more than 700 members)



• first year (2008/2009) focusing on how one of the main squares of the city centre could be revived both in urban and cultural terms



• movement launched a manifesto with key issues for developing public spaces with quality in Aveiro (Manifesto pelo EspaçoPúblico);

• a local film society (Cine-clube de Avanca) in collaboration with Amigosd’Avenida promoted a cinematographic activity called Aqui/Here (http://www.aqui-here.com/), with 10 short-films about 10 different public spaces located in 10 cities around the world.


• City Council designed a project proposal and applied for funding from the National Strategic Reference Framework (2007-2013).

• The project – Parque da Sustentabilidade (Sustainable Park) –aims at establishing a greenway crossing on a significant part of the city centre;

• Even though legislation foresees public discussion for this type of projects, citizens were essentially informed through the Press.


• Although the requalification of its historical garden was foreseen, the proposal also included the design of a new road that would split the garden in two units, raising immediately several questions;

• The potential harmful consequences of that proposal for recreational activities, road traffic and not least to the daily lives of residents, created the appropriate conditions to set up in 2010 a civic movement called ‘Contra o Alboi cortadoao meio’ (Against the cut of Alboi in half);

Case 2 –Contra o Alboi Cortado ao Meio


• a blog and a Facebook page, with approximately 2 500 friends

• important initiative emerged during the discussions held through digital channels: Alboi Cortado ao meio? Não! (Alboi cut in half? No!), a poster that was disseminated throughout the community

• the film director and musician Joaquim Pavão presented a short-film with a huge impact on the Internet, radio and national TV.




• the integrated use of web-based technologies allowed spreading efficiently the movements’ activities, helped sensitising people to the issues at stake, enhanced the impact of the activities and citizens’ voice, induced civic engagement and promoted a favourable environment to alter the project’s proposal.

• in October 2011 the local government, facing a sensitive political context changed the initial proposal.


Case 3 –Contra a Ponte Pedonal no Canal Central

• The project Parque da Sustentabilidade also envisaged controversial issues, such as the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the central water channel aiming to link the central park Rossio with Alboi neighbourhood and related facilities, like restaurants and bars;



• Critics:

– Location;

– visual impact in central channel (in the hart of the city);

– gentrification of old neighbourhood;

– lack of global planning ;

– respect of Urban Plan;



In 9 months:

• 40 citizens – new civicmovement – new mailing-list (more than 1.000 emails)

• 1.670 citizens FB page

• blog http://contrapontepedonalnocanalcentral.blogs.sapo.pt/



Impacts:

• 3.532 citizens subscribingpetition against that location!

• 4 public meetings - strong social mobilization & Active citizenship

• Social media has provided the desirable boost to place the issue in the national media agenda, with several TV reports and newspaper opinion articles across the country;



Was produced:

• Technical & Juridical documment;

• Appeal concerning the nature fo the investment in times of difficultiesand finnantial crisis;

• Sent to National Government, Regional Auhtorities, Courts

• Despite all the efforts, the local government did not respond (so far) to any of the challenges proposed;

• But… a new civic movement was born! ‘Movimento Cívico Por Aveiro’


Case 3 – … Movimento Cívico Por Aveiro Participative Itinerant Roadmap

Taking advantage ‘Aveiro Participative Budget ‘ a group of citizens from several civic movements submited a proposal -a Participative Itinerant Roadmap,

that was selected in a public voting

in a group of 23 projects.

Idea

Encourage the involvement of citizens and local actors in joint reflection on the future of their neighborhood, parish and county and identifying micro-proposals for action (low-cost, high impact).


Key lessons learned

1. The capacity of social media to transform virtual opinions

and ideas into real initiatives


� They can help but are not a sufficient condition

� It is fundamental the presence of a central number of persons that

are able to ‘make the wheels go round’ and engage c itizens in

purposive efforts

� The number of participants that embrace these movem ents

through the use of social media is also important, not only in

motivating those already involved and providing fre sh ideas, but

also in amplifying the debate outside local boundar ies

2. The political reaction to civic movements that seek to

counteract policy decisions


� There is an overall perception from elected officia ls that civic

movements of this kind have no democratic legitimac y

� There is no tradition in promoting public participa tion outside the

common arenas

� And this often contributes to the disengagement of communities

from civic activities

3. The pedagogic and constructive nature of these civic

movements and the way social media positively

contribute to this purpose


� Citizens mainly express themselves when a lot is at stake for them

personally…

� However, they do get involved in such processes whe n they have

more access to information, notice that there is a common share

of ideas amongst the community and that their voice s can be

heard

� Social media can create a good support in this rega rd

4. The recognition of the social media technologies’

significance in promoting citizens’ joint effort to set

direction for their community


� A necessary but not sufficient condition for encour aging civic

engagement and public participation in policy makin g processes

� The important role of a small number of key actors to create the

basic conditions for engaging the local community i n discussions

� Although simple web-based technologies may be easy to use, a

lack of digital skills and education is still notic eable (especially

amongst elderly people)

Final remarks…

� An important role for government: to act as a collaboration

platform � it needs to pro-actively articulate with communities and

encourage the use of social media � and indeed communities are

changing from passive consumers to active users/producers


� Case studies show that it is necessary to create the key enablers

and pre-conditions to make things happen (both digitally and non-

digitally)

� But one thing is for certain: the way forward must embrace these

new challenges

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