Title: Digital Participation in Local Communities and AI
Duration: 2023-2026
Research Area: Responsible AI

The project specifically examines the local level of political participation, as well as the influence of artificial intelligence on its application processes. The focus lies on the role of digital participation with regard to implementation, objectives, and motivation in Smart Cities.

Aims

The objective is to determine the extent to which digital capabilities foster local participation across different regimes, and how artificial intelligence influences processes, communication, and decision-making. To this end, local digital participation opportunities are analyzed in order to evaluate the impact, usage, and ethical implications of artificial intelligence with regard to citizen participation.

Problem

Digital avenues for citizen participation have seen a steady increase. This applies equally to state-sponsored digital participation initiatives at all levels – national, regional, and local. Concurrently, artificial intelligence is gaining influence within the public sector for the purposes of data analysis and decision automation. However, the impact of AI deployment on democracy and citizens’ opportunities for participation – as well as how digital participation and AI are integrated within the context of Smart Cities – remains an insufficiently researched area.

Outlook

Currently, two papers are in preparation: The first paper addresses the web scraping of digital participation tools across different regimes. The second paper examines the motivations for digital participation in smart cities across various regimes.

Publications

• Kneuer, M., Schünemann, W.J., and Bahms, G. (2024). Internet Control and Disinformation Across Regime Types During and After the Covid‐19 Crisis. Politics and Governance, 12, Article 8580. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8580
• Kneuer, M., Wimmer, M.A., Bahms, G. (2026). Digital Democratic Participation in Local Governance from an Urban-Rural Perspective. In: Kössler, K., Schläppi, E. (eds) Citizen Participation in Local Governance. Local and Urban Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-99824-9_14

Team

Lead

• Prof. Dr. Marianne Kneuer

Team Members

• Giulia Bahms