By Aviv Ovadya

• Artificial Intelligence
• Peer-reviewed research
• Democratic Innovations

In this paper, building on insights from the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, we provide a "Democracy Levels" framework for evaluating the degree to which decisions in a given domain are made democratically.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Peer-reviewed research
• Evaluate impact

Google DeepMind and Stanford researchers built the "Habermas Machine" and found that AI mediators generated more palatable summary statements of the discussions, as rated by participants, than human-written summaries, while still representing minority views in the final version.

• Google

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Peer-reviewed research

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Peer-reviewed research

This article proposes, and presents results from, an online technology platform and a methodology, which can help depolarize sectors of society, with the specific application to the current divisive post-war landscape within Colombia.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Peer-reviewed research

Stanford + DeepMind study that used LLMs to simulate people with AI agents based on a 2-hour interview

• Google

• Artificial Intelligence
• Engagement tech
• Academia

The 2023 edition of the “IPIC – Portuguese Municipal Councils’ Online Presence Index” series of studies presents the results of the evaluation of Portuguese municipal councils’ websites.

• cities

• Govtech
• Peer-reviewed research
• Report cards and audits

Waymo partnered with dashcam company Nexar to analyze 500 million miles of driving, including 335 crashes, to create the 'largest ever’ dataset of pedestrian and cyclist injuries

• cities
• cycling
• mobility

• Data science for social good
• Peer-reviewed research
• Hardware

A paper published in SSRN by Erica Chenoweth, Zoe Marks

• Advocacy tech
• Research and policy centers
• Peer-reviewed research

"Importantly, people experiencing distress are more likely to engage in collective action on climate change or express a willingness to do so, even when controlling for several correlates of environmental behavior"

• Climate action
• mental health

• Organize campaigns
• Peer-reviewed research

Evidence from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan shows that digital aid is a cost-effective, credible, and efficient way to reach vulnerable populations, in this case poor, tech-illiterate, female-headed households, in fragile states.

• Zero hunger

• Disaster response and humanitarian tech
• Peer-reviewed research
• Direct aid

An open database of conversations ChatGPT had with people who believe in a variety of conspiracy theories, which can be filtered by the efficacy of the conversation in changing beliefs.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Fight disinformation
• Peer-reviewed research

Through a comprehensive analysis of various ICT projects, this study examines the success and challenges of using technology to protect and restore land rights.

• land
• indigenous

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research
• Information & Communication Tech for Development (ICT4D)

Paper by ROBERT WOLFE and TANUSHREE MITRA, University of Washington, United States

• Artificial Intelligence
• Fight disinformation
• Factchecking

[A] multi-stakeholder co-design project – including a citizen panel – is an integral part of the process in which the service is designed and realized

• mobility
• cities

• Digital security and privacy
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Academia

Academic analysis of open data on Github finds it's "one of the largest hosts of open data in the world and has experienced an accelerated growth of open data assets over the past four years."

• Civic data
• Peer-reviewed research
• Open data publishing platforms

#GotaGoGama, which criticized Gotabaya's candidacy and highlighted human rights abuses.

• Media
• Journalism
• Academia

The aim of this study was to assess the current use of smartphones by the masons of the informal settlements of Iringa, Tanzania, and to identify pathways for improving their construction practices.

• informal settlements
• housing

• Peer-reviewed research
• Smartphones

Drawing on literature from multiple disciplines, we propose a multi-faceted metric which future researchers, journalists and news agencies will be able to use when analysing media impact.

• Media
• Peer-reviewed research
• Evaluate impact

Paper by Paolo Cardullo, Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, and Paco González Gil. "In this paper we focus on the platform’s ‘soft infrastructure’ – the network of developers, ethical hackers, academics, maintainers, advocates and activists, and city administrators but also the agreements with the city and the documentation produced – on its internal governance arrangements and the provincialising relationships these might entail."

• Decidim

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

This study by Yuya Shibuya empirically analyzes the impacts of open data on behavioral change by investigating the case of Taiwan.

• Civic data
• Peer-reviewed research
• COVID

The Evidence Mapping project aimed to create a common, up-to-date evidence/ knowledge base about civic tech in the African context, to improve support, decision-making and advocacy in relation to civic tech (including more broadly civil society innovation, tech for good and digital governance).

• Learn about civic tech
• Peer-reviewed research

"an end-to-end open-source framework for creating georeferenced pedestrian networks from aerial imagery"

• place-based
• streetscape
• Good health and well-being

• Peer-reviewed research
• Urban planning
• Satellites

A research article in the Journal of Deliberative Democracy by Espen Leirset

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research
• Communicating with the people

"Findings from this study presents a developed model that can support community engagement for urban innovation by specifying factors that influences community engagement for smart sustainable city development." by Bokolo Anthony Jr.

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• Academia

A team of researchers led by Dominik Hangartner, IPL co-director and professor of public policy at ETH Zurich, has joined forces with colleagues at the University of Zurich to investigate what kind of messages could lead authors of hate speech to refrain from such postings in the future

• hate speech
• X (Twitter)

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

The Journal of Deliberative Democracy (formerly the Journal of Public Deliberation) is an open access journal publishing articles that shape the course of scholarship on deliberative democracy.

• Participatory democracy
• Learn about civic tech
• Academia

A paper published in Nature introducing a database of public meetings in the US

• YouTube

• Communicating with the government
• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

"Documents put together by university departments that attempt to explain the reach of their research beyond academia."

• Learn about civic tech
• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research

"We implemented a pre-registered, citywide experiment to test the effects of three high-pay-off, geographically targeted lotteries designed to motivate adult Philadelphians to get their COVID-19 vaccine...we do not detect evidence of any overall benefits."

• vaccines

• Peer-reviewed research
• COVID Engagement Projects
• Behavioral economics programs

Paper by Jonathan Mellon Tiago C. Peixoto Fredrik M. Sjoberg

• Participatory democracy
• Engagement tech
• Peer-reviewed research

A research paper

• WhatsApp

• Media
• Fight disinformation
• Peer-reviewed research

Investigating the empirical case of urban biking activists in Madrid, we explore how the design of the digital platform Decide Madrid impacted the collaborative practices involved in digital participatory budgeting.

• cycling

• Participatory democracy
• Engagement tech
• Participatory budgeting

A collection of essays edited by Ana Brandusescu and Jess Reia featuring essays from participants of the AI in the City: Building Civic Engagement and Public Trust symposium that took place remotely on February 10, 2022.

• cities
• books

• Artificial Intelligence
• Participatory democracy
• Emerging tech

How to increase public engagement in environmental issues is a central question in environmental communication and environmental psychology literatures.

• research
• Sustainable cities and communities

• Academia
• Peer-reviewed research
• Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR, AR, MR)

Research with Code for America on CalFresh, by Donald Moynihan, Eric Giannella, Pamela Herd, and Julie Sutherland finds "hard evidence on the barriers administrative burdens pose."

• research

• Peer-reviewed research
• Access social benefits

The AI Now Institute at New York University is an interdisciplinary research center dedicated to understanding the social implications of artificial intelligence.

• The Tech
• Artificial Intelligence
• Learn about civic tech

The AI for Good Foundation engages on a number of fronts in order to continuously serve its core mission.

• The Tech
• The People
• Artificial Intelligence

Explore and evaluate your city's resilience, to plan for a strong future.

• The People
• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers

The AI Initiative is dedicated to shaping the global policy framework to govern the rise of Artificial Intelligence, addressing holistically short-, mid- and long-term governance challenges.

• The Tech
• The People
• Artificial Intelligence

The Reporters’ Lab is a center for journalism research in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Our core projects focus on fact-checking, but we also do occasional research about trust in the news media and other topics.

• The Tech
• The People
• Media

The Journal of Online Trust and Safety is a cross-disciplinary, open access, fast peer-review journal that publishes research on how consumer internet services are abused to cause harm and how to prevent those harms.

• Fight disinformation
• Ethical tech and responsible tech
• Peer-reviewed research

studies the impact and future of technology in Brazil and in the world

• The People
• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers

To directly study the impact of social media on politics and to develop new methods and technology tools to analyze the impact of social media on democracy.

• Media
• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers

The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security.

• The People
• Adjacent Fields
• Learn about civic tech

ITIF is a think tank focusing on critical issues at the intersection of technological innovation and public policy.

• The People
• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers

Centro de Investigaciones y actividades academicas en torno a entornos digitales

• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers
• Digital literacy

CivLab is a suite of complementary projects and design-thinking that revolve around the concepts of citizenship, civics, and engagement.

• The People
• Adjacent Fields
• Learn about civic tech

LSE Cities is an international centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science that carries out research, graduate and executive education and outreach activities in London and abroad.

• cities

• Research and policy centers
• Peer-reviewed research

A research lab that addresses local issues through participatory data practices: methods, approaches and tools for co-creation to learn about and through data.

• The People
• Learn about civic tech
• Research and policy centers