Berlin Citizen Science

Citizen Science is research conducted with participation from the general public, nonprofessional researchers, or participants in science, social science, urban planning, and many other disciplines. Citizen science can be used as a methodology where public volunteers help in collecting and classifying data, improving the scientific community's capacity. Participation in citizen science projects also educates the public about the scientific process and increases awareness about different topics.

“Your Emotional City” is where science is collaborative and participation is open to everyone.

Cities trigger emotions in us – pleasant and unpleasant. On the one hand, they offer opportunities for development, culture, and prosperity. They are political, economic, and scientific centers. But they also have another side, they are often anonymous or dirty, they contain injustice, crime and violence. Cities stimulate us, and they challenge us. Sometimes, they cause stress. Some even make them sick. But they also fascinate us. Everything has an impact on our psyche and health. 

In the Citizen Science project “Your Emotional City,” we want to find out how citizens feel, decipher the feelings in specific streets, squares, neighborhoods, and parks, and gain insights into cities in general. Together, we will find out what will make cities of the future places worth living in.

The citizen science strategy of "Your Emotional City" centers on creating a participatory platform where citizens play an integral role in the project’s design, implementation, and outcomes, making it a project not just for citizens but also with them at its core.

Utilizing Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods, the project invites citizens to contribute to real-time, context-sensitive data collection about their emotional experiences within urban spaces. This citizen-centered approach seeks to improve mental health by understanding the emotional effects of various urban settings, bridging academia, medical institutions, society, and policy into ongoing dialogue.

The project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining psychology, urban planning, sociology, and digital tools to create a holistic framework for assessing urban mental well-being. Rather than simply viewing citizen science as a recruitment tool, "Your Emotional City" makes it the project's foundation, fostering active community involvement and shaping research outcomes to reflect the lived experiences of the population.

Show us your city for a week!

If you take part in the study, our app will accompany you through your urban life for a week. We will send you a short questionnaire up to three times a day for 7 days. We ask about...

  • ...your current emotional well-being,

  • ...how your environment affects your emotions,

  • ...how do you feel about your environment at the moment (full, loud, or maybe very green?),

  • ...a photo of the item or object that is most affecting your emotions at the moment.

We also collect your current location for every survey (of course, only if you allow us to do so in the settings beforehand!). We then use the GPS data to add environmental data to each of your answers, for example, about the current weather, traffic, or air pollution at your location.

“Your Emotional City” is a joint project of Interdisziplinäres Forum Neurourbanistik e. V., Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Futurium, House of the Futures. Funded by the Berlin University Alliance as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

Learn more about the objectives of the project “Your Emotional City” with Dr. Shadi Bagherzadeh Azbari: ‘ https://futurium.de/de/blog/wir-erfassen-die-gefuehle-der-menschen-in-echtzeit

Recent Engagements

On February 23rd, 2024, over 30 colleagues from various neighborhood initiatives, such as BENN, Quartiersmanagement, and city governance, convened in a workshop with the 'Your Emotional City' team to explore citizen science methodologies. During the session, participants delved into recruitment strategies, identified challenges and obstacles in project dissemination, and brainstormed potential collaborative endeavors.

On March 6th, 2024, the ‘Your Emotional City’ team hosted an event on “HOW THE CITY AFFECTS OUR PSYCHE" at Futurium, where the project's aims were presented. Attendees engaged in discussions on urban mental well-being, exploring scientific insights and initial study results. The event fostered an interactive exchange on urban development, stress, loneliness, and mental health.

On June 29th and 30th, 2024, the team of ‘Your Emotional City’ was invited to be part of “48h Neukölln”, an independent art festival held annually, offering artists from various disciplines 48 hours to showcase their works and ideas. Under the theme of the 2024 festival edition, “Urban Silence”, the team encouraged contemplation of the role of mental health in urban environments and how social or architectural factors in the city may affect the stress perception of the citizens.

On October 8th, 2024, Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, former University Professor of the Humanities at New York University and author of "The Open City" (2019), Richard Sennet, participated in the internal colloquium with our project ‘Your Emotional City’, where together we discussed the results of our project and envisioned new strategic steps for the future.

On November 6th, 2024, our project ”Your Emotional City” took part in the ‘Akademietag’, which centered around the topics of health care and city life. As part of the motto 'Living in Healthy Cities – Living Healthily in Cities’, we introduced our project and engaged in exciting disucssions about urban living and mental health with a highlight being the Panel-Talk “Healthy City, Healthy Mind”, where our project leader Prof. Dr. Mazda Adli participated, as well.

As part of the WINS Circle Meeting on November 25th, 2024, Dr. Shadi Bagherzadeh Azbari, Senior Researcher of “Your Emotional City,” shared insights into the project’s vision and goals and engaged in thoughtful conversations about the prospects and obstacles of urban living in the modern era (Photo by: Julia Baier/ HU).

On May 27th and 31st, 2024, the team of ‘Your Emotional City’ was part of the Kiezlabor, a project under the Smart City and digital strategy Gemeinsam Digital: Berlin, implemented by CityLAB Berlin on behalf of the Berlin Senate Chancellery. The team engaged in a variety of exchanges about the relevance of health prevention and mental well-being, as well as addressing and discussing concerns about health issues in urban districts and their implications for future initiatives and research.

On August 24, 2024, the Lange Nacht der Museen took place in Berlin, and we had the opportunity to participate with our project ‘Your Emotional City’ at Futurium. A highlight of our stand was the interactive stress map of Berlin. Visitors could mark specific locations in the city, where they experienced significant stress, but also places where they feel relaxed. In addition to the stress map, we prepared a small quiz for visitors that included interesting facts about neurourbanism, providing insights into how urban environments impact mental health.

On October 30th and November 6th, 2024, our project “Your Emotional City” launched its first “Looping Workshop” with a partnership between Futurium and BENN Hakenfelde. The first session of the two-part-Workshop began with a guided tour of the exhibition in Futurium, followed by an interactive introduction to our project and its aims. The second session that took place at BENN Hakenfelde, focusued more on the participants’ experiences with the “Urban Mind”-App, which led to lively discussions about explored mental health and urban living in Hakenfelde.

On November 12th, 2024, Senior Researcher of our project “Your Emotional City”, Dr. Shadi Bagherzadeh Azbari, was invited as a guest speaker to the Civic Data Community, where she introduced the project and talked about its goals, as well as engaging in discussions about chances and challenges of living in a modern city (Photo by: Donya Joshani). 

Upcoming Events:

Are you interested in how exactly we approach the data? Then visit one of our citizen science workshops, which we regularly hold together with the Futurium - House of Futures in Berlin. Under Events you can always find the next scheduled appointments.