About Martijn de Waal
Bio
I am a writer and researcher based in Amsterdam. In my work, I explore the entanglement of new media technologies and public spaces.
I currently work as a professor at the research group Civic Interaction Design at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In our group, we explore future visions for a democratic network society. With our work, we strive to develop new visions, concepts, roles, design approaches and prototypes that contribute to public life.
With an MA in Film and Television Studies, another in Cultural Studies and a PhD in Practical Philosophy and a professional past as a journalist, my background is rooted in the humanities. In the last few years I have tried to connect the more analytical, critical and discursive practices of these disciplines with the field of design.
I followed my MA-programmes at the University of Amsterdam (1998) and received a PhD from the Univeristy of Groningen. As an exchange student I spent a semester at UC Berkeley (1996). As a visiting scholar I was hosted at The M.I.T. Medialab / Centre for Civic Media (2009). In 2026 I visited the TD School at the University of Technology Sydney as an honorary professor.
From 2018-2021 I was the chair of the Media Architecture Biennale, taking place in the summer of 2021 in Amsterdam and Utrecht. From 2018-2020 I served as the chair of the Digital Culture committee at the Creative Industries Fund NL, and from 2008 to 2013 I served as a member of the board at the Dutch Fund for Cultural Broadcasting. With Michiel de Lange, I also co-founded The Mobile City, a non-profit that between 2007 and 2025 organized numerous workshops and events on digital media and urban culture. With Frank van Vree and Theo van Stegeren, I also co-founded DeNieuweReporter.nl in 2005, a leading Dutch blog on the future of journalism, for which we have won the National Press Prize De Tegel in 2006.
I have spoken and hosted workshops at many international events, from academic conferences and biennales to professional events in the worlds of policy, design, architecture, and new media.
Contact & Follow:
If you are interested in collaborating, or want to invite me as a speaker or otherwise, please contact me at martijn AT martijndewaal DOT nl.
You can also follow me on Bluesky / Mu.social and SIfa.
I also maintain a profile on Linkedin, but plan to move all my activities to the open web in the near future.
Some of my key publications include:
The City as Interface. How New Media are Changing the City. Nai 010 Publishers, 2014
The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World. With José van Dijck and Thomas Poell. Oxford University Press, 2018
The Hackable City. Digital Media and Collaborative City-Making in the Network Society. With Michiel de Lange. Springer 2019.