Gamified Participation: Encouraging Civic Engagement in Urban Governments

Being faced with an ever decreasing level of political participation that endangers their legitimacy, several governments have started to create digital platforms that aim to foster civic engagement. This thesis investigates whether adding game elements to such platforms can increase people’s motivation to participate. The research focuses on determining the effect of individual game elements (such as leaderboards, badges) on overall participation. This is achieved by conducting various field studies with a mobile participation prototype.