Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election highlights an ever growing divide between rural communities and urban centres, not just in the United States but in many developed countries. As with the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, pollsters missed the mark and failed to identify the “silent vote” living in less populated areas.
At its best, polling provides an equal voice to all and gives expression to the public’s wants and needs. At its worst, polls follow the most engaged voices and are inadequate at reaching citizens not interacting with civic life, either because they lack the tools, don’t see the relevance in their communities, or do not find the methods themselves to be engaging.
Home to more than half the world's inhabitants, with forecasts that 70% of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050, cities play a central role in contemporary society. Digital connectivity, internet of things (IoT) and social media can measurably influence the approach planners take to citizen engagement and these technologies, when deployed thoughtfully, have the potential to bridge the rural/urban divide.
Chicago is catalysing some of the most progressive smart city innovations in recent years and has a model for a civic tech ecosystem that can be exported to smaller communities and counties operating under greater constraints. Smart Chicago’s Array of Things Civic Engagement, an urban sensing project that collects real-time data on environment, infrastructure and public activity, is a partnership between governmental and non-profit foundations. According to Glynis Startz, a Harvard Ash Fellow who worked with Smart Chicago this past summer, the structure of the initiative lends it both stability through government backing and agility under the Chicago Community Trust which is primarily focused on bridging to communities within specific project work. Smart Chicago’s Civic User Testing Group (CUTGroup) pays residents across the entire county to provide user feedback on websites and apps to help enable better tools. This open government model has been picked up by planners in other American cities such as Detroit, Oakland, and Chattanooga. Arguably, it could be rolled out across suburban, ex-urban and rural areas in order to draw residents into the conversation about their communities, with the potential for constructive feedback loops.
In the “2015 Connected Cities Report” conducted by Harris poll on behalf of Salesforce, 3,075 adults in 15 major U.S. cities were polled. The report found that residents are seeking greater use of digital technologies such as mobile apps, websites and social media to communicate with their local governments on service issues, public transportation, public safety, energy use and other civic concerns. However, resident demand for digital technologies is offset by generally low use, or low awareness, of current offerings in their cities. The survey offered other insights, with a majority of citizens open to sharing personal data in exchange for digital services such as location data for safety, energy and water usage for efficiencies, and traffic data to improve transportation systems. Further, an average of 60 percent of respondents were willing to share personal contact information for civic engagement.
Cities are working to establish meaningful feedback loops that aggregate data from citizens and respond to civic issues. Philly311, a collaboration between Salesforce and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, is a citizen reporting platform to address non-emergency services at the street level and enable responsive fixes to city infrastructure issues ranging from potholes to stoplight outages.
Citizens using Philly311’s mobile app can report an issue, track status updates, and search for relevant community data. Citizen participation projects have the potential to inform the citizenry, increase transparency in government, level the disproportionate influence of different social, economic, racial, religious and geographical populations, and draw on citizen awareness and expertise to improve quality of life.
While cities serve as economic and innovation drivers, with many emerging technologies designed to serve complex urban regions, there are opportunities to translate and adapt best practice to the rural landscape. It begins by devising an innovation ecosystem where business, government and institutional partners create high-quality employment, with more emphasis on expanding access to digital skills and community-led programs that engage citizens as advocates for progress. Anchor institutions such as universities and schools have a role to play in connecting citizens with the broader conversation outside of their communities. Crowdsourcing renewal and community development projects is one such driver towards a more connected populace.
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