This paper presents a case study of a climate-focussed digital internship pilot program intent on increasing engagement with, and jobs in, the “Bluetech” ocean-based economy in Baltimore, Maryland.
Understanding participants’ lived experiences across multiple strands of alignment–including general interest, digital skills and technology access, environmental knowledge, and perceptions of climate and environmental problems–supported their engagement in the program and advanced their educational and workforce goals.
Those experiences are undergirded by the historical setting of Baltimore, which is navigating contemporary interrelated impacts of global change due to climate, economic, and digital infrastructure transformations.
Like many cities, Baltimore has developed a policy agenda focused on technological innovation, sustainability, and education as conduits of progress meant to address these concerns.
However, the promise of innovation across these policy areas may not be realized if Baltimore’s youth do not attain the necessary digital competencies and relevant knowledge to address them.
An iterative pedagogy was applied in order to help interns gain conceptual depth, technical skills, and content knowledge, and yielded insights about how youth may traverse the complexities of the modern Bluetech economy.
Baltimore’s innovation-forward policy agenda continues to require technology, education access and opportunity to connect to the economic directions being designed.
And yet, the same advancement of innovation may also exacerbate the longstanding poverty present in the city if more is not done to bridge everyday experiences of youth with opportunities to learn and engage in foundational experiences, skills and knowledge upon which innovation will be based.
Masucci, M., Mahmoudi, D., & Wiig, A. (2026). Bluetech in Baltimore: Co-creating smart city innovations with local youth. Applied Geography, 187, 103887.
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