Donagh Horgan

Dr. Donagh Horgan is an interdisciplinary designer, consultant and academic researcher working on sustainable urban environments to support social innovation and democratic exchange. He is currently a senior researcher at the New Urban Tourism research group of Inholland University of Applied Sciences.

His research is concerned with how participatory tools can initiate new conversations with city stakeholders for the benefit of all. Having practised as an architect and urban planner, he later worked in public service design before returning to academia. During his time at the Institute for Future Cities he worked on a number of projects looking at improving the lives of citizens, not least in the run up to COP26 hosted in Glasgow.

Donagh’s research touch on a number of areas such as regenerative tourism; smart cities and open decision-making; geospatial and transformative technologies for settlements and intersect with a number of research areas. Most recently he has led research design on the Edinburgh case for SMARTDEST – an EU-funded project looking at smart solutions to social exclusion driven by overtourism. This work has encouraged a revisiting of the city as an ecosystem – and the role of tourism to support a new dialogue in order to rebalance settlements in favour of more social and spatial equity.