# Martijn de waal (@martijndewaal.nl)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/martijndewaal.nl
Headline: Professor Civic Interaction Design. Researcher, speaker & writer on new media & public space 

## About

Martijn de Waal (1972) is a writer and researcher focussing on the implications of new media for public spaces.

I am currently working as a professor (lector) at the research group Civic Interaction Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. I also serve as the Academic Director for the Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation, a collaboration between my institute, InHolland University of Applied Sciences, the Amsterdam University of the Arts, and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

During 2018 I functioned as the head of research for the faculty of Digital Media and Creative Industries at my university.

Formerly I worked as an assistant professor in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. I hold a PhD (2012) from the University of Groningen, where I was a member of the research group of practical philosophy, and the digital media & urban public space programme. In 2009 I spent a semester as a visiting scholar at the M.I.T. Center for Civic Media.

In November 2016 De Platformsamenleving was published, a book I co-authored with Jose van Dijck and Thomas Poell. An updated English version The Platform Society appeared in the fall of 2018 with Oxford University Press.

In 2014 I wrote The City as Interface (Rotterdam: Nai010 Publishers), a book on the relation between digital media and the urban public sphere.

Other key books and articles include:  The Hackable City Cahiers and The Hackable City book, edited with Michiel de Lange and Matthijs Bouw;  Responsive Urban Spaces, written with Frank Suurenbroek and Ivan Nio;  Owning the city: New media and citizen engagement in urban design (co-authored with Michiel de Lange);   With Michiel de Lange, in 2007 I founded TheMobileCity.nl, an international think tank and research network on New Media and Urban Culture.

I was appointed as the general chair for the Media Architecture Biennale that took place in Amsterdam and Utrecht  in June 2021. Frank Suurenbroek, Michiel de Lange and Nanna Verhoef have joined me in the executive committee organizing the event.

In the past I have worked as a journalist for a broad variety of Dutch media such as de Volkskrant and VPRO Radio, and organized various workshops on digital media and interactive storytelling. I also contributed to Neville Mars study The Chinese Dream with a travelogue.

From 2008-2014 I served as a member of the board of the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund. From 2017-2020 I chaired the grant program for Digital Culture at the Creative Industries Fund NL.

## Career

- **Lector (Professor) Civic Interaction Design Research Group at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences** (Mar 2020 - Present)
  Civic Interaction Design is an interdisciplinary research group at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Together with students, designers, technology developers, policymakers, (local) governments, academic researchers, and citizens, we explore how design & technology can contribute to civic life: the numerous and varied interactions through which people in a society come together to strive towards collective well-being.
- **Honorary Professor at TD School - University of Technology Sydney** (Jan 2026 - Mar 2026)
  Seasonal
- **Academic director at Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation** (Apr 2024 - Apr 2025)
  The Centre of Expertise Creative Innovation is an impact network for the creative industry. We connect creative makers, researchers & education, policymakers, and social organizations to explore together how the creative sector can contribute to societal challenges and the digital transition. Together, we explore the creative possibilities of new materials and technologies, the use of artistic and design methods for societal challenges, and the implications of new media for society.
  
  The CoE Creative Innovation is a collaboration between Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Hogeschool InHolland, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten and Gerrit Rietveld Academie.
- **General Chair at Media Architecture Biennale** (Nov 2018 - Jul 2021)
- **Chair Committee Digital Culture at Creative Industries Fund NL at Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie** (Mar 2017 - Jul 2020)
- **Head Of Research at Faculty of Digital Media & Creative Industries, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences** (Jan 2018 - Mar 2019)
- **Assistant Professor at University of Amsterdam** (Jan 2012 - Jan 2016)
  I am an assistant professor at the department of Mediastudies, Faculty of the Humanities
- **Visiting Scholar at MIT Medialab / Centre for Future Civic Media** (Mar 2009 - Jun 2009)
  Cambridge, MA
  The MIT Center for Civic Media creates and deploys technical and social tools that fill the information needs of communities. Or as they state on their website: 'We are inventors of new technologies that support and foster civic media and political action; we are a hub for the study of these technologies; and we coordinate community-based test beds both in the United States and internationally.'
- **Editor and Co-founder at De Nieuwe Reporter** (2005 - 2006)
  De Nieuwe Reporter is a Dutch professional blog on new media, digital culture, public sphere, technology and journalism. I co-founded this blog in 2005 with Frank van Vree and Theo van Stegeren. In 2006 we won the Dutch national press-prize 'De Tegel' in the category new media
  \- background.
- **Journalist and correspondent at Free lance journalist** (1996 - 2006)
  Between 1996 and 2006 I have worked as a free lance journalist for several Dutch publications (de Volkskrant, Nieuwe Revu, HP/DE TIjd, Intermediair, Managment Team)  and radio stations (Teleac, VPRO). I reported mainly on new media developments, art and technology, and also did a fare bit of travel writing.
  
  In 1999 and 2000 I worked as a correspondent for several Dutch Media in San Francisco, covering Silicon Valley and the technology and culture beat.
- **Editor / staff writer at De Volkskrant** (Jan 1998)
  I worked as an editor and staff writer at the media desk at the Dutch National Newspaper de Volkskrant (circulation around 300,000) in 1998.

## Skills

### Business
- Blogging
- Nonprofits
- Social Media
- Writing
### Interpersonal
- Lecturing
- Qualitative Research
- Research
- Teaching
### Other
- Art
- civic media
- Cultural Heritage
- Digital Culture
- Digital Media
- Digital Storytelling
- Editing
- Journalism
- Media
- New Media
- New media and Journalism
- new media in urban culture & design
- Politics
- Publications
- Storytelling
- Urban Culture

## Publications

- Root Systems: towards a decentralized internet at Dweb Camp — martijn-de-waal-thinking-about-new-media.offprint.app (Jul 2026) https://martijn-de-waal-thinking-about-new-media.offprint.app/a/3mrx3d67o5h23-root-systems-towards-a-decentralized-internet-at-dweb-camp
- Stedelijk leven onder algoritmes — Trancity Valiz (Jun 2026) https://www.trancity.nl/publicaties/stedelijk-leven-onder-algoritmes
- The City as a License: Design, Rights and Civics in a Blockchain Society (Special Issue) — Big Data & Society (Mar 2024) https://journals.sagepub.com/page/bds/collections/thecityasalicense
- Civic Interaction Design: Shaping Public Life in a Network Society (inaugural lecture) — Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Mar 2021) https://pure.hva.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/45140450/2021_Inaugural_Lecture_Civic_Interaction_Design.pdf
- The Hackable City Digital Media and Collaborative City-Making in the Network Society — Springer (Jan 2019) https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-2694-3
- The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World — Oxford University Press (Jan 2018) https://academic.oup.com/book/12378
- The Hackable City: A Research Manifesto & Toolkit — ACIN / The Knowledge Mile (Jan 2016) http://thehackablecity.nl/2016/01/11/new-publication-the-hackable-city-a-research-manifesto-and-design-toolkit/
- Owning the city: New media and citizen engagement in urban design. — First Monday (Nov 2013) http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4954/3786
- The City as Interface. How New Media are Changing the City — NAi010 (Jun 2013) https://www.nai010.com/nl/publicaties/the-city-as-interface-e-book/141170
- The Ideas and Ideals in Urban Media Theory — From Social Butterfly to Engaged Citizen  Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement (MIT Press) (Jan 2012) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=788
- Mapping Digital Media The Netherlands — Open Society Foundation (2012) http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/mapping-digital-media-netherlands
- The Urban Culture of Sentient Cities: From an Internet of Things to a Public Sphere of Things — Sentient City Ubiquitous Computing, Architecture, and the Future of Urban Space edited by Mark Shepard (MIT Press) (2011) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=236
- Mobile phones, social networks and location data: Recognizing the Nuances of Privacy — Open (NAi Publishers) (2010) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=188
- Too much joy and pleasure — The Chinese Dream. Neville Mars & Adrian Hornsby ed. (010 Publishers) (2008) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=207
- Towards a MySpace Urbanism? — Media City (Bauhaus University Press) (2008) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=116
- From Medialandscape to Media Ecology. The cultural implications of Web 2.0 — Open (Nai Publishers) (2007) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=57
- Urbanisms. A glossary — Visionary Power. Producing the Contemporary City. Catalogue of the 2007 International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (2007) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=40
- Beijing and Beyond — Huang Rei ed. Beijing 798: Reflections on Art, Architecture and Society in China (Timezone 8) (2004) http://www.thepublicmatters.eu/?p=32
- Open Data: From “Platform” to “Program" — Future Everything http://www.themobilecity.nl/2013/11/18/4220/

## Education

- **Rijksuniversiteit Groningen** — PhD (2006 - 2012)
  I was part of the New Media, Public Sphere and Urban Culture research project, supervised by prof. Rene Boomekens at the department of practical philosophy at the University of Groningen. Here I conducted the research that led to my dissertation The City as Interface
- **Massachusetts Institute of Technology** — Visiting scholar (Mar 2009 - Jun 2009)
  Activities & Societies: As a visiting scholar, in the spring semester of 2009, I was part of the Center for Future Civic Media, a collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and the Comparative Media Studies Program.
- **University of Amsterdam** — MA, MA Film & Television Studies & MA Cultural Studies (Aug 1992 - Feb 1998)
  Activities & Societies: During my studies, I served on various committees, such as a board member of student association Particolarte, and as the editor of the Faculty of Humanities Monthly Newspaper / Magazine Babel.
- **University of California, Berkeley Foundation** — Exchange student, humanities (Aug 1996 - Dec 1996)
- **Johan de Witt- gymnasium** — High School (Aug 1984 - Jun 1991)

## Languages

- Dutch (native)
- English (full professional)
- German (professional working)

## Links

- linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijndewaal
- Website Civic Interaction Design Research Group @ AUAS: https://www.civicixd.com