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All Work and No Play? Facilitating Serious Games and Gamified Applications in Participatory Urban Planning and Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Cristina Ampatzidou

    (Department of Spatial Planning & Environment, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Katharina Gugerell

    (Department of Spatial Planning & Environment, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Teodora Constantinescu

    (Faculty of Architecture & Arts, Hasselt University, Belgium)

  • Oswald Devisch

    (Faculty of Architecture & Arts, Hasselt University, Belgium)

  • Martina Jauschneg

    (Green City Lab Vienna, Austria)

  • Martin Berger

    (Green City Lab Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

As games and gamified applications gain prominence in the academic debate on participatory practices, it is worth examining whether the application of such tools in the daily planning practice could be beneficial. This study identifies a research–practice gap in the current state of participatory urban planning practices in three European cities. Planners and policymakers acknowledge the benefits of employing such tools to illustrate complex urban issues, evoke social learning, and make participation more accessible. However, a series of impediments relating to planners’ inexperience with participatory methods, resource constraints, and sceptical adult audiences, limits the broader application of games and gamified applications within participatory urban planning practices. Games and gamified applications could become more widely employed within participatory planning processes when process facilitators become better educated and better able to judge the situations in which such tools could be implemented as part of the planning process, and if such applications are simple and useful, and if their development process is based on co-creation with the participating publics.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristina Ampatzidou & Katharina Gugerell & Teodora Constantinescu & Oswald Devisch & Martina Jauschneg & Martin Berger, 2018. "All Work and No Play? Facilitating Serious Games and Gamified Applications in Participatory Urban Planning and Governance," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 34-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v3:y:2018:i:1:p:34-46
    DOI: 10.17645/up.v3i1.1261
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Justus Uitermark & Jan Willem Duyvendak, 2008. "Citizen Participation in a Mediated Age: Neighbourhood Governance in The Netherlands," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 114-134, March.
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    3. David Crookall, 2010. "Serious Games, Debriefing, and Simulation/Gaming as a Discipline," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 41(6), pages 898-920, December.
    4. Oswald Devisch & Alenka Poplin & Simona Sofronie, 2016. "The Gamification of Civic Participation: Two Experiments in Improving the Skills of Citizens to Reflect Collectively on Spatial Issues," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 81-102, April.
    5. Reinout Kleinhans & Maarten Van Ham & Jennifer Evans-Cowley, 2015. "Using Social Media and Mobile Technologies to Foster Engagement and Self-Organization in Participatory Urban Planning and Neighbourhood Governance," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 237-247, June.
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    Cited by:

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