Sean Peacock

My PhD research looks at how digital technologies can support children and young people to make better cities for the future. These groups are often excluded from the way we plan our cities, and I think this is wrong. Prior to this, I worked as an urban planner in local government.

I’ve designed research with young people to understand the issues they face in their neighbourhoods and come up with ways to address these issues, both digital and physical. To achieve this, I’ve worked with groups in primary schools, youth councils and through a children's museum. I’ve designed lots of creative activities, tested out new and old technologies and helped them take action on important local issues. The work we’ve done together has delivered improvements to the environment and generated evidence to support local change. It's also led to the creation of toolkits that have helped generate impact from our work.

Outside of my PhD, I work as a user researcher for the UK Government, designing policy-focused research with people who use the planning system to understand how we might be able to improve it.