The research is geared towards inspiring and facilitating new modes of communication between civic tech, journalism, and media research. It targets journalists for translating existing research insights into new types of data-driven, civic resources for policymakers and citizens alike. As such, the transition towards sustainable urban environments is taken as a focal lens to reinvigorate and reinvent the public mandate of journalism based on a reconceptualisation of its role and function in a connected society.
InfraPublics addresses a gap between journalism studies and smart city research, taking the datafication of urban spaces as an opportunity for journalism to go beyond the “informed citizen” model of its audience. The project maps and evaluates approaches to how journalists, citizens, cities, data providers and civic tech NGOs can work together on a local level to shape infrastructures for civic communication in the connected city. The main fields of research explored in this project are limitations of data journalism and civic communication, participatory approaches to "platform urbanism" and living labs for sustainable cities and communities as well as HCI approaches to make data-driven insight actionable for civic initiatives.
The project thrives on international networking and exchange of experiences, mainly between Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands. Running from 2021 to 2024, it is funded by the Aarhus University Research Fund.
