Samenvatting

More and more governments are using a ‘digital twin’ (DT), an advanced digital 3D representation of physical reality. With the many modelling, visual and interactive options, DTs could support citizen participation. In this way, DTs can contribute to ‘smart anticipation’. The question, however, is how can DTs be of value for citizen participation? This first requires strategic coordination of DTs with the internal and external environment. In this article we answer this question based on design research into the DT of the Dutch municipality of Almere (a recently built city close to Amsterdam in the province Flevoland). Based on the design science methodology, we study the DT’s commitment to citizen participation in a process of two interventions and validate our design. We argue that adopting a hospitable attitude is essential for shaping dual coordination to appropriately deploy DTs within a citizen participation process. The research contributes to the management science literature on the strategic alignment of digital technologies with organisational processes and contexts. Based on this research, we formulate concrete recommendations to governments that use, or would like to use, DTs to strengthen citizen participation.