What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to explore how AI can promote care and belonging in urban safety contexts, shifting from traditional threat management.

March 1, 2026Open Access

Cleaning & greening the city: AI-imaginations of positive safety

Key Points

The study aims to explore how AI can promote care and belonging in urban safety contexts, shifting from traditional threat management.
Conducted Photovoice-to-AI methodology with local students and residents documenting their neighborhood experiences.
Held community workshops to develop AI-imaginary of an ideal neighborhood from participant insights.
Facilitated workshops with decision-makers and ecologists to refine AI applications and nature observations.
Identified two types of AI experiences: Care-oriented AI and Inclusive AI.
Found that trash negatively impacts public safety perceptions, while nature enhances them.
Demonstrated that Generative AI facilitates better communication and participation in urban planning.

Abstract

The expanding use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public safety has largely centered on managing ‘threats’ and ‘risks,’ while its potential to foster ‘care’ and ‘belonging’—key aspects from a Positive Safety perspective—remains underexplored. To narrow this gap, this study empirically researches Lombardijen, a neighborhood in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with notably low subjective public safety perceptions. It employs a Photovoice-to-AI methodology, where 60 students from a local school and 16 residents photographed their experiences of neighborhood safety, which subsequently informed AI-imaginations of an ‘ideal neighborhood’ in two community workshops (±15 participants each). Insights from these workshops were then enriched through an AI workshop with 24 decision-makers and a nature observation stage with ecologists and animals. Findings reveal two empirical AI-experiences of Positive Safety: (i) Care-oriented AI and (ii) Inclusive AI. In this regard, Generative AI served as a third medium that enhanced articulation options in participation for both city residents and decisionmakers. The core result is that trash weakens—and nature strengthens—public safety perceptions. This paper therefore calls for a shift in urban management: reframe trash as an invitation for care and nature rather than a matter of control and repression, and prioritize community-driven public space improvements that give communities greater agency. AI-supported communication, thereby, ultimately bears promise for the Right to the City debate. • Proposes a shift from control-oriented to care-centered AI for public safety • Introduces a novel Photovoice-to-AI method to co-create “positive safety” with residents • Empirical findings show trash weakens, and nature strengthens, subjective safety. • Generative AI served as a “third medium,” lowering articulation barriers in participation in urban planning. • Argues for reframing urban neglect and trash as an invitation for care, not as a cue for repression

Cleaning & greening the city: AI-imaginations of positive safety

Key Points

Abstract

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