Nice to have you on my research blog. I am Maike Klip and here I am thinking out loud about the relationship between citizens and government. And how it could be better.
The system world of government is a different one from the living world of people. Reality is out there, and we sit in here behind our desk creating clever solutions that don’t turn out at all as we might think.
How can government design services that are good for people?
I am conducting doctoral research on that question together with TU Delft and public service organizations such as the Central Judicial Collection Agency and the Education Executive Agency.
Want to start at the beginning? Then read this blog about the big plan and go from there. You can follow the research through my newsletter. Each month you will receive a summary of the progress and read how you can participate.
Previously, I created a working method to make algorithms in government transparent to lawyers, accountants and developers. I was theme leader at the National Ombudsman and before that a digital strategist and researcher at the Department of Education. In the summer of 2020, I did research for the CoronaMelder app.
The most recent blogs I wrote
Search through different research topics
This blog is always about the relationship between citizens and government. This can be very meta, but preferably also very concrete. With each research topic, therefore, you will find not only theory but also practical approaches with manuals.
Everything you can copy paste and try out for yourself, and it’s okay to do so. Let me know if I can get you started via maike @ klipklaar.nl.
The compassionate civil servant
My design research on the role of empathy in (digital) government.
Together with students and colleagues from the Department of Education, I explored how we translate the Student Finance Act into ‘the computer’. How does this affect the relationship between students and government? How do we, creators of digital government make our choices? How can we be compassionate public servants and break the dark patterns in ourselves, our organization and in our relationship with citizens and politics?
You can read the answers in the interactive and visual essays at debegripvolleambtenaar.nl. You can see part of the research project in this short film.
About Maike
I am Maike Klip (35) from Groningen. I have been a civil servant since 2013 and started this blog in 2017. In my private time, I row and photograph, but never at the same time.
Here are some more fun links of mine:
- All the lectures and talks I give can be found on Noti.st, my speaker portfolio
- I don’t just photograph civil servants, there is much more work in my portfolio: maikeklip.com
- And resume on Linkedin