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“FairCare Verkehr”: real-life experiment on digital tools for data collection and storytelling

Applications & technologies / City of Hamburg / Urban data / urban research

The City Science Lab at HafenCity University has conducted its first real-life experiment in the CUT project on the topic of unpaid care work and mobility under the motto “FairCare Verkehr”. Two new digital tools were tested and presented: One for digital storytelling and one for data collection.

This is the first part of the “FairCare Verkehr” real-life experiment. Information on the second real-life experiment can be found here.

The City Science Lab at HafenCity University has conducted its first real-life experiment in the CUT project on the topic of unpaid care work and mobility under the motto “FairCare Verkehr”. Two new digital tools were tested and presented: One for digital storytelling and one for data collection.

Both tools were programmed in a nine-week development phase by the Hamburg-based company Ubilabs in close cooperation with the City Science Lab researchers. In addition, it was clarified with the State Office for Geodata and Surveying how the two tools could be integrated into the City of Hamburg’s master portal in terms of software. After completion, the Urban Data Narrator was filled with content that had previously been researched and processed in order to tell a scientifically based data story about unpaid care work. It explains the topic in 22 steps based on the digital Hamburg data platform Geo-Online as well as selected data sets from the master portal, texts, photos and infographics.

During the test phase at the end of 2021, the new tools were tested on two touch tables on the premises of the City Science Lab together with invited care workers. The test runs were carried out in individual sessions and guided by the researchers. In the sessions, the storytelling tool was first used to convey the topic of the real-life experiment – the mobility behavior of unpaid care workers – in the form of the previously developed data story. Then, with the help of the data collection tool, the Urban Data Collector, data sets on the mobility behavior of the participants were created and stored on a local server in compliance with data protection regulations. Short interviews were conducted at the end of the data collection. The participants were asked how usability could be improved and whether the tools were suitable for adequately recording and communicating the interests of those affected.

The results were presented on December 13, 2021 at a public evening event in compliance with coronavirus regulations. A hybrid setting (analogue and digital) was set up in the presentation room of the City Sicence Lab. The tools were displayed on a touch table and several guests spoke alongside the research team on a small stage, including Christian Pfromm, Chief Digital Officer of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and Prof. Gesa Ziemer, Head of the City Science Lab. An online platform for video conferencing was used for the video broadcast, with the approximately 45 viewers able to contribute with questions and comments via the chat function.

The data collected during the real-life experiment will be analyzed in the course of further research. It will be used to improve the accessibility and usability of the tools. The researchers are also pursuing the goal of establishing the tools in Hamburg’s urban planning. As components of the urban twin, they should help to ensure that those affected can contribute their concerns more effectively to urban planning processes and that urban developers have a more comprehensive basis for decision-making in order to do them justice.

The mobility behavior of unpaid care workers is a very relevant topic. Unpaid care work includes all the activities that people do to help, care for and educate themselves, but which are not remunerated. The hours worked in this way and the value added exceed the total number of hours worked by all employees in Germany. Nevertheless, cities are primarily geared towards the needs of working people.

With regard to the tools developed, however, this topic is only one of many other possible use cases, despite its high social relevance. The researchers at the City Science Lab are focusing primarily on socio-ecological issues. They want to supplement the development of urban digital twins (e.g. traffic management, energy efficiency, buildings), which usually focuses heavily on technical use cases. They are concerned with the question of how social aspects of urban coexistence can be better captured and mapped using urban twins in order to make cities more liveable – because that is what CUT is all about: making digital twins and data platforms usable for integrated urban development.

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