Journal article
The benefits and challenges of using crowdfunding to facilitate community-led projects in the context of digital civics
Daniel Gooch, Ryan M Kelly, Alexandra Stiver, Janet van der Linden, Marian Petre, Mike Richards, Anna Klis-Davies, Jessica MacKinnon, Robbie Macpherson, Clare Walton
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies | Elsevier BV | Published : 2020
Abstract
Digital technology is increasingly being used to bring citizens and communities together to address local concerns. While a variety of approaches have been developed that allow citizens and communities to improve their local communities, these approaches are often financially unsustainable. In this paper, we describe our exploration of crowdfunding as an alternative approach to funding community-led projects in the context of digital civics. Through our analysis of four community-led crowdfunding projects, we demonstrate that crowdfunding can a) provide an alternative funding mechanism suitable for financing community-led projects, b) create a sense of empowerment and ownership for project l..
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Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank everybody in Milton Keynes who has taken part in any of our engagement activities, particularly the project leaders for their hard work, dedication and commitment. This work was undertaken as part of MK:Smart which is part funded by the UK Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). HEFCE had no involvement in the study design, the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, in the writing of the report or the decision to submit the article for presentation.