Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan is a researcher and designer who has been involved with the emerging network society and digital culture since the 1980s. Nevejan is a regular presenter at national and international fora. She is an advisor to national and European policy makers.

Caroline Nevejan is emeritus professor by special appointment with the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam to which she is still connected as a fellow. Her research was focused on Designing Urban Experience and in this context she supervises 6 PhD candidates in this context (see tab underneath).

Between 2017 – 2025 Caroline Nevejan was also the Chief Science Officer of the City of Amsterdam. The Chief Science Officer orchestrates research between the municipality of Amsterdam and the different scientific, academic and artistic universities in the city. With a small team she made sure that civil servants and researchers can find each other, formulate shared research questions and invent different new ways of working together. 

Ongoing

Design for knowledge production in communities of practice | By Ino Paap

The many people connected via digital networks and living in cities create a new potential for problem solving capabilities and well-being for society. A successful inclusion of the massive volumes of embodied experiences of the many people can contribute to the problemsolving capabilities of mankind at large. This research, which is about design for experience, investigates pre-requisites, design and architectural principles for knowledge production in digital networks. Knowledge emerges when people contribute on digital platforms. This research investigates co-creation of knowledge in digital contexts between different ‘communities of practice’ in artistic and design research, within the field of culture and retail. It investigates the integration of knowledge in the field of design, co-creation, narrative structures and curation in different cultural and commercial contexts.

Supervision in collaboration with prof. Eelke Heemskerk

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Urban Data Chronotopes | by Katya Letunovsky 

While historically challenging for quantitative study, rhythms of urban life can now be captured through diverse data sources like mobile phone trajectories, social media sentiment, or credit card transactions. In response, this work introduces the concept of "urban data chronotopes" (UDCs) as a representation of these rhythms and through data aggregation, analysis and visualization. It will explore the requirements for their effective application in urban social research.

Between 2019 and 2024, participation in the NWO research project Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience  – with principal investigator Caroline Nevejan between the University of Amsterdam, AMS Institute, TU Delft, Amsterdam Municipality and Habidatum  – further triggered the start of this PhD trajectory. DRSR combined spatiotemporal data analytics with ethnographic research on community rhythms in Amsterdam, and it showed that data alone offers limited interpretive depth unless grounded in theory, and, conversely, that theorizing urban rhythms and spatiotemporalitygains explanatory power when supported by large-scale data, like aggregated movement and stop records from mobile phones. Combining both approaches can inform decisions on pandemic response, community engagement, tourism and event management, neighbourhood master planning, transport planning, and economic development.

The link of practice and theory is at the core of the current PhD project. The central aim is to connect what spatiotemporal data can reveal about community rhythms and underlying spatiotemporal trajectories, and theoretical frameworks, ultimately producing insights that are both analytically strong and practically applicable for cities.

Supervision in collaboration with prof. Eelke Heemskerk

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Participation of children in international humanitarian crisis | by Aysegul Binalı

The world has been experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in its history. According to the UN statistics, 130 million people need humanitarian aid, 68.5 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes due to international, non-international armed conflicts, human-made and natural disasters. Fifty percent of those affected by conflict are children; some are victims of torture, sexual and gender-based violence, therefore in need of immediate humanitarian and medical assistance.

This research aims to find alternative ways to address the challenges of the crisis, to improve the assistance for the children caught up in war and conflict, natural disasters and conflicts, to empower children as the agents of their own recovery, to summon greater political will to prevent further war and conflict.

Supervision in collaboration with prof. Floris Vermeulen

Completed

Solomon D. 2026. Multispecies Urbanism. Redefining Urban Greenspace Through Ecological, Reciprocal, and Situated Planning Practices for Interspecies Coproduction

Sefkatli P. 2024. City Rhythms in Action, Advancing Methodologies and Concepts for a Spatiotemporal Perspective on the Urban Social Context, diss. University of Amsterdam

Goilo J.C. 2024. Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change, diss. University of Amsterdam

Caroline Nevejan lectures on a multitude of topics, always related to her interdisciplinary research, located on the intersection between social sciences, art, design and computer science.

In the different subjects she focuses on the impact of merging on-and offline realities Topics include but are not limited to:

• Presence
• Trust;
• Rhythm;
• Witnessing;
• Artistic and design research;
• Interdisciplinary collaboration;
• Societal impact of the sciences;
• City Science;

In 2017, Nevejan was awarded over 0.5 million euros in funding to make connections between research for the creative industry with Digital Humanities research and large-scale digital infrastructures.

Smart Culture – Big Data/Digital Humanities is a joint initiative of NWO Social Sciences and Humanities, NWO Domain Science, the top sector Creative Industry and Commit2Data. Partners were the University of Amsterdam, AMS Institute, TU Delft, Amsterdam Municipality and the company Habidatum. Nevejan was the principal investigator, working in close collaboration with Alessandro Bozzon.

Nevejan’s project ‘Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience’ investigated rhythm as a new methodology for forming policy in which data analysis, intervention and design are integrated to strengthen the social resilience in city districts. During the research, the openresearch.amsterdam platform was used to collaborate with researchers, civil servants, residents, entrepreneurs, designers and the creative industry. All publications can be found here: https://openresearch.amsterdam/en/page/36989/rhythm-research-collection

In 2024 NWO awarded a ‘take off’ subsidy to explore how the DRSR research can lead to a new company. As a result, the company Habidatum - which was already engaged in the DRSR research- founded the new London based company Apollo, in collaboration with the company Leading Cultural Destinations that participated in Nevejan’s research into ESG for Cities.

https://openresearch.amsterdam/en/page/102780/exploratory-research-esg-for-cities-esg4c

Between 2017 - 2025, Nevejan was the Chief Science Offcer of the City of Amsterdam. The Chief Science Officer creates synergy between the needs and questions of the municipality of Amsterdam and the research that is happening in Amsterdam's universities and other educational and knowledge institutes. Here more than 30 partners, including universities, hogescholen, vocational training institutes, the municipalities many departments, the regional government, the economical-, the water- and the transportboard, publish the research on urban challenges.

In 2019 Nevejan founded the City Science initiative in close collaboration with the DG Research & Innovation and the Joint Research Centre of the EU Commission which she chaired till 2025.  More than 50 cities have contributed to show and tell about the necessary impact of research for cities inspiring many other cities and DG’s of the EU Commission as well. Today the City Science Inititiative has become a vibrant part of Eurocities, which connects over 400 cities in Europe.