Welcome to a new module on the socio-technical system of air quality and energy!

In the previous module, you were introduced to urban air quality in general and to the case of the haze in Chinese cities in particular. In this module, we will continue with the topic of air quality by looking at Kampala and Amsterdam. As you saw last week, Chinese NGOs play a crucial role in co-creating an online discourse and political leverage to push forward solutions for air pollution issues. In China, NGOs are emerging as a political entity, however, they are often restricted in their activities. How different is this situation for NGOs in Amsterdam, the Netherlands? We will visit the Amsterdam-based NGO ‘Waag Society’ as a starter for this module. This institute for art, science, and technology works on many topics that involve citizens and socio-technical change. Just like IPE in China, Waag Society also works with citizens to counter air quality problems, but in a very different way. Let’s have a look!