Leika Aruga
Doctoral research fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Leika Aruga is a PhD candidate at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Her PhD project explores the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in participatory processes in sustainable urban transformations. She is a participant of the project Sustainable Digital Transformations under NTNU's Interdisciplinary Sustainable Initiatives. In her PhD project, she is studying diversity and the use of digital participatory platforms in Norway and Japan through analytical approaches based on new materialisms and intersectionality theory. Aruga has a MSc in Globalisation and Sustainable Development from NTNU as well as an LL.M in International Laws on Human Rights and Criminal Justice from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Tell us about your project!
My PhD thesis explores the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in participatory processes in sustainable urban transformations. Specifically, I am studying the use of digital platforms for participation such as Decidim by local governments as part of their urban planning practices. While digital participatory platforms are developed to make participatory processes open, transparent and democratic, such ideals and their realization depend on continuous reworkings of power dynamics. Through case studies in Norway and Japan, my thesis aims to articulate material-discursive practices that shape materializations of participatory practices in which digital participatory plaforms are one of the actors.
“While digital participatory platforms are developed to make participatory processes open, transparent and democratic, such ideals and their realization depend on continuous reworkings of power dynamics”
— Leika on her research project “Citizen participation in sustainable urban transformations”