Place-Based Policymaking and HCI: Opportunities and Challenges for Technology Design

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There has been a growing interest in HCI in designing and developing technology to support democratic participation, particularly in the domain of urban planning or place-based research. In addition, the HCI field has increasingly considered the intersection of HCI and policymaking to understand how our research can have a broader impact. In this paper, we report on a series of workshops with citizens and city planners to explore place-based policymaking through the case study of neighbourhood planning in the UK. Our analysis highlights the tensions, opportunities and challenges faced by citizens in creating policy. Drawing from our findings, we stress the need for HCI to be actively involved in supporting, innovating and (re)designing civic policymaking processes while emphasising design considerations for the development of technological tools.