Civic hackathons: a new medium for community engagement?

Abstract

This dissertation endeavors to answer the following questions: How do civic hackathon
organizers, perceive defining characteristics of their events, view the outcomes of their
events, and relate hackathons to community engagement? Ten organizers from three separate
cities, one city from Scotland, the United States, and Canada, were recruited for semistructured
interviews. Detail-rich findings identified a unique problem-solving focus inherent
to civic hackathons. Organizers discussed how they relate themed hackathons to local issues,
and some found that open hackathons instead provide citizens with greater power to solve
challenges they find most important. Reflections on hackathon outcomes illuminated a
debate between organizers over whether the most important goal of a hackathon is to produce
a solution or gather participants from different professional sectors for a creative discussion.
While hackathon organizers found that diversity was an important element in their events, the
extensive time hackathons require may bar certain populations with less free time from
participating. While most hackathon organizers felt their events related to community
engagement, others questioned if engagement was the primary goal. Engagement scholars
such as Arnstein, Fung, and Zuckerman, were used to frame these findings with an emphasis
on power relationships, diversity of participants, and engagement outcomes.