New Working Paper on Co-Creation for Sustainable Urban Innovation

How can Smart City initiatives become more participatory, reflexive, and socially grounded? A new working paper developed within the Urban Digitainability Lab explores how municipalities and civil society actors can work towards more responsible approaches to digital urban transformation through co-creation.

In the publication “Ko-Kreation für nachhaltige Stadtinnovation”, Magnus Keske, Anja K. Ruess, Ruth Müller, and Stefan Wurster highlight that co-creation is not a self-running process. Meaningful participation in Smart City contexts requires resources, institutional support, clear role expectations, inclusivity, and an openness to negotiating different forms of expertise, responsibility, and decision-making authority.

The working paper introduces four practical formats for co-creative city-making and provides municipalities and societal actors with concrete approaches for implementing participatory Smart City initiatives. An accompanying co-creation canvas further supports cities in reflecting on and planning these processes in a more structured and reflexive way.

Bringing together perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS), urban governance, and digital transformation research, the publication contributes to ongoing discussions on responsible innovation, participation, and public value in Smart City development.

The project was developed in collaboration with the Urban Digitainability Lab at the TUM Think Tank.

The full publication is available via the TUM Think Tank website.