Civil City Lab – Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies

About Civil City LabTeam

is an interdisciplinary research team working within ISS and carrying out research for the co-creation of better, democratic and wisely managed cities.

Civil City Lab aims to investigate the consequences of technological development in the context of urban life. We want to understand how digitization and new technologies can shape the quality of life of city users, influence cities development and urban policies. We are particularly interested in how technology can influence the implementation of the principles of democracy, equality and social justice in cities. Based on existing sociological and psychological theories – including the recent concept of “digital right to the city” – we want to answer the question about the impact of technological innovations on the well- being of urban dwellers, social cohesion and the quality of local democracy, understood as the ability of citizens to articulate their interests and participate in making decisions about the direction of city development.

Anna Domaradzka-Widła

POSITION

ISS Director. Assistant Professor. Social researcher with 20 years of experience, head of the Civil City Lab, specializing in
intersectional and international comparative research in the areas of civil society and
social movements, urban sociology, gender studies, and digital sociology. She led or co-
led several international projects concerning urban cohesion, civil society, social
entrepreneurship and welfare state issues, as well as gender and social equality in public
and private sphere. Since 2020 she is UNESCO Chair in Women, Society and
Development at University of Warsaw.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Civil society, social movements, urban movements, urban sociology, gender sociology, sociology of science and education

E-mail: anna.domaradzka@uw.edu.pl

Ewa Domaradzka

POSITION

Psychologist working at the Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of
Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests include positive psychology, mental health,
urban health, emotions and emotion regulation, and the influence of natural and urban
environments on well-being.
She cooperates with the Civil City Lab. She is the Principal Investigator in her own research project
“Contact with nature and wellbeing: the role of nature connectedness, emotion regulation, and
season of the year”, funded by the Polish National Science Center, and participated in several
other projects. She teaches PhD students at IPPAS and the Graduate School for Social Research
(GSSR).
She was a visiting researcher at City, University of London (UK), she (co-)authored numerous
publications and conference presentations, and is a reviewer for several scientific journals.

Member of International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Urban health, wellbeing, urban nature, mental health, positive pschology

E-mail: edomaradzka@psych.pan.pl

Mateusz Trochymiak

STANOWISKO

Assistant professor at Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Science, University of Warsaw and public sector consultant with more than 10 years of experience in providing executive-level insights based on mixed-methods research. Interested in social policy, urban governance and digital transformations in public administration.

Member of ISTR – International Society for Third Sector Research

ZAINTERESOWANIA BADAWCZE

Social policy, social work, welfare state, economic sociology, SMART city, urban governance,
public policy digitalization

E-mail: m.trochymiak@uw.edu.pl

Nina Wróblewska

POSITION:

PhD student at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences in the field of sociology. A member of
the Civil City Lab team, where she works on qualitative research on urban livability, civic
activity, and urban policy. Interested in neurodiversity studies, urban sociology, and social
participation.

Członek zespołu Civil City Lab

RESEARCH INTERESTS

neurodiversity, right to the city, citizen science, social participation, impact

E-mail: n.wroblewska4@uw.edu.pl

Mikołaj Biesaga

POSITION:

Asystent naukowy / Research Assistant
Doktorant / PhD Candidate

Członek Ośrodka Badań Układów Złożonych i Nowych Technologii.
Member of the Center for Complex Systems and New Technologies and the Global Systems Center at ISS.
Członek Civil City Lab

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Ability to produce random series, randomness, complex systems, social influence, dynamic of social interactions, computational social science, individual differences, Nature-Based Solutions, Blue-Green Solutions, green gentrification, right to the healthy city, Natural Language Processing, Computational Social Science

E-mail: m.biesaga@uw.edu.pl

Agata Żbikowska

POSITION:

Research Assistant at Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Science, University of Warsaw. Anthropologist and sociologist. Teacher and youth coach with over twelve years of experience in education. Research interests include civil society, youth culture, childhood studies, leisure studies and urban sociology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Civil Society, Youth Culture, Childhood Studies, Leisure Studies, Urban Sociology, Sociology of Education

E-mail: agata.zbikowska@uw.edu.pl

Tutoring szkolny i akademicki