The following chapter describes the research fields that this work is situated in (Sect. 3.1). It then discusses the contributions of empirical studies and design studies (Sect. 3.2), as well as how they complement and build on each other in a mixed methods approach (Sect. 3.3). Finally, this chapter outlines the research context in which the thesis was developed, with a focus on the resilience of smart cities in relation to security incidents (Sect. 3.4).