Samenvatting

In smart cities, deliberation between public
professionals and discontented citizens risks
devolving into a ‘dialogue of the deaf’, where parties
talk past each other due to differing perceptions of
what constitutes good deliberation. Meta-deliberation
offers a promising direction to raise awareness of this
risk, encourage reflection on differing perceptions,
and anticipate tensions. However, its potential
remains unexplored, and practical instruments are
lacking. Therefore, Design Science Research (DSR)
was used to develop a practice-oriented, academically
grounded meta-deliberation instrument guided by six
standards of deliberative quality, for public
professionals in smart city contexts. The instrument is
informed by academic insights and interviews with
public professionals (n=17), and was evaluated by
experts (n=9) and professionals (n=2x3). This study
contributes academically by showcasing the potential
of meta-deliberation to address a dialogue of the deaf,
methodologically by applying DSR to smart city
governance challenges, and practically by designing
an instrument to improve government-citizen
interactions.