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Making Sense of Urban Air

Tue, August 18, 8:00 to 9:40pm CEST (8:00 to 9:40pm CEST), virPrague, VR 13

Abstract

This paper explores how the introduction of Google’s ‘Project Air View’, which measures polluting particles in Copenhagen, has an impact on definitions and perceptions of ‘air quality’. Air pollution has long been known to have adverse health effects, and measuring it more accurately can contribute to public welfare by optimising both urban planning and citizen behaviour. However, what is seen as air ‘quality’ to different people is in practice located between objective measures, and subjective bodily experiences facilitated through the senses in everyday life. The aim of the paper is to generate findings that can both theoretically address debates in the qualitative social sciences about how people perceive of and react to data and numbers in relation to how experience is technologically mediated, and practically to aid our research partners in the Copenhagen Solutions Lab get the most out of the data generated by the Project Air View. Insights into both expert and citizen definitions of ‘air quality’ will enable Copenhagen Municipality to align the concerns of different stakeholders with political agendas related to the design of urban space. This includes how to prioritise the location of kindergartens, schools, industry or infrastructure in light of how people act upon air pollution data. Understanding how air quality definitions and data are interpreted under different circumstances will among other things improve the grounds for decision-making.

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