Over the past two and 1/2 months, we have been welcoming and onboarding people to the pilot first year of the Global URBAN HEAT Media Lab, an international initiative and network for knowledge exchange, co-learning, media and content creation, and collaborative research potential on issues of urban heat.
As part of the onboarding process, members fill out a survey that helps to document their motivations for joining, disciplines represented, co-creation ideas, and more.
Of 56 current members, we have 44 responses, and this graphic highlights responses for specific activities members want to participate in.
Below, we note the top 6 areas of interest for participation for network members.
‘Research collaboration’ is the overwhelmingly dominant area of interest for members, with 81.8% selecting it.
Next, 59.1% responded that their area of interest is ‘Academic Internships’. The interest in academic internships for this project has been so high that we decided to integrate an ‘International Internship Network’, in which interns from around the world can join & work on an independent project or collaborate with other university students in a collaborative internship project.
56.8% of respondents noted interest in ‘Submitting a research or practice-based case study for a contributed volume or special journal issue on Urban Heat’. This is of great interest, as at Pedestrian Space we have partnered for multiple publication projects (including most recently with Cities & Health journal and University of Vermont Press) and plan to further partner for published works on urban heat.
Next, 50% responded with interest in ‘Submitting a Blog Post About Your Urban Heat Work to the Pedestrian Space website’. This aspect is crucial, as we are a ‘Media Lab ‘; there is an expectation that network participants are creating some type of media (social media, short or long videos for YouTube, blog posts) reflecting their work, unpacking their research concepts in content creation, and also sharing more about the process and background of their research and work related to urban heat.
Next up, there are two sections for which 40.9% of respondents marked their interest: ‘Creating or Co-creating media for public awareness and engagement’ and ‘Community Outreach for public awareness and engagement’. Awareness shaping via content creation is also an explicit aim of the initiative, so these areas are critical nodes of activity for the project as well.
Main page for project:
See recent activity related to the project: https://pedestrianspace.org/category/urban-heat/
Project Substack: https://globalurbanheatmedialab.substack.com/