Educating for co-production of community-driven knowledge

In this paper, we present the project, Community Drive, as well as the theoretical and empirical background on which the project is based. Through technical and humanistic collaboration, the project aims to create models that allow children and young people to participate in overcoming future challenges in cities by becoming active and contributing participants in research and development efforts. Further, the project contributes knowledge about community-driven game tools, user-driven big data and the Internet of Things and their connection with intelligent and socially responsible urban development. The project is conducted in cooperation with the city of Copenhagen, local schools and Aalborg University. Community Drive involves students, aged 10–13, attending schools in deprived neighbourhoods near Aalborg University Copenhagen in southern Copenhagen. This area is characterised by a high rate of unemployment, low income and residents with little or no education. As a result, resources have been allocated for reconditioning the subsidised housing in this area. In this paper, we discuss the ways in which Community Drive, initiated in May 2018, is based on the results of pilot projects conducted from 2014 to 2017. Overall, these studies showed that tasking students with changing their living conditions by redesigning their neighbourhoods is a strong motivational factor. During the redesign process, students were able to construct game-based models of various residents’ needs and argue for redesigns based on their knowledge about the area and the ability of certain designs to fulfil the needs of various groups of residents living in the area. We also present initial results from collaboration workshops between schools and professional external local partners. These results show that three themes are central for the collaboration process: building local contact, meaningful local ownership and real challenges and applicable solutions.