IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York
Abstract
Co-creation is an opportunity to bring together the government, private sector, and citizen stakeholders to “build better, more enjoyable, and more inclusive places to live, work, and play” (Urban Development, 2021). There are many apparent benefits to co-creation: from the government’s perspective, it allows to collect citizen needs and ideas directly and manage risks more openly; from the private sector’s perspective, it allows to tap directly into the market for new ideas; from the citizen perspective it allows to gain community representation and influence decision making on issues that directly affect them (Agusti et al., 2014). Despite the positives, co-creations in urban planning are often seen as risky. Achieving equitable and inclusive partnerships among the diverse group of stakeholders hinges on fostering conditions to establish clear understanding and alignment for the entire duration of the project. This research seeks to understand the current models and frameworks of urban planning co-creations and identify barriers and limitations that may prevent equitable and inclusive participation for citizen stakeholders. Building on the learnings from the current landscape of co-creation, we plan to reimagine the co-creation process by analyzing what building blocks are necessary to ensure successful collaboration where citizens have equal power and ownership in the process. Bibliography: – Agusti, Carles, et al. Co-Creating Cities. Defining Co-´creation as a Means of Citizen Engagement. 2014, https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3684.5849. – Urban Development: Co-Creating Our Space with Digital Tools. https://www.citizenlab.co/ebooks-en/urban-development. Accessed 9 July 2022.
Nabil Harfoush, Associate Professor, Graduate studies at OCAD University. 50 years of practice as an engineer, technology strategist, entrepreneur, and executive. Founding faculty of the SFI Program and Founder of OCAD’s Resilience Design Lab. Nabil is also a co-founder of Strongly Sustainable Business Models Group (SSBMG). Founder or co-founder of four companies. Consulted for enterprises, national governments, and international organizations such as the World Bank, W.H.O., UNESCO, and the International Development Research Center.
Ainsleigh Burelle – Ainsleigh is an impact-driven researcher and designer, passionate about bringing co-creation practices and a systems lens in order to create more sustainable and resilient products and services. With a multidisciplinary background and approach, she is driven by the objective of making technology work better for society.
Emily Rho – In her practice as a designer, Emily uses strategic foresight, systems thinking, and design thinking to tackle complex problems with a focus on inclusivity and sustainability. A Master of Design candidate at OCAD University’s Strategic Foresight and Innovation, Emily’s research is focused on using co-creation to design more livable and sustainable urban living.
Farah Basha – a service designer with a background in industrial design, focusing on design for health. Farah is currently based in Saudi Arabia, working with a government authority to design municipal services accessed by citizens, developers, and design offices looking to obtain licenses and permits for their construction and development projects. Farah is interested in introducing co-creation processes and methods to the region through citizen engagement in the work that she does.
3:15 pm - 4:45 pm
Thursday 15th June, 2023