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Smart and civil? Civil Society role in the Context of Technological Smart City Developments

Thu, July 18, 2:00 to 3:30pm, TBA

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Civic participation is a practical necessity in the context of smart city development to ensure it develops according to democratic principles. Similarly civil society organizations involvement with smart technologies have a potential to become a driving force that empowers residents to have a say in the future of their cities and communities, ensures people-centric development, and promotes transparency, inclusivity, and sustainability. While the concept of smart citizenship (Shelton, Lodato 2019) gains traction, we need to critically revisit what it means for society at large and civil society actors in particular.

In recent years, civic engagement became an important part of the social control mechanism that strives to ensure that smart cities evolve and expand in a democratic and human rights-based direction. Otherwise, we risk shaping the urban environments of the future based on technocratic logic or engineering pragmatism, risking severe social costs (Cardullo, Kitchin, 2019). Examples from around the world showcase risks related to implementation of technological innovation beyond democratic control and without wider consultation processes (Swyngedouw et al., 2002).

This panel will discuss ways in which smart city technologies can be a catalyst for creating responsive, and livable cities that genuinely serve the needs and aspirations of their citizens. At the same time we will discuss the drawbacks of existing technological solution and related political processes within the smart city realm. In particular, our discussion will follow the issue of “smart-citizenship” and “right to the city” in the process of city digital transformation. As there are evidence that new technologies support participation by providing access to previously excluded city inhabitants, making policy decision process more transparent, and deliberation more available and user friendly, in the process of digitalization of public service citizens are often reduced to the “customers” or “users”, with lesser or no significant impact on the policy (Cardullo, Kitchin 2019; Shelton, Lodato 2019).

We also explore the problem of digitalization and smart city governance, seen as a complex process of institutional change, in which different actors force their own vision of digital change (Meijer, Bolívar 2016). In this context, we put special attention to the involvement of CSOs and grassroots movements in building smart city as an opposition to the corporatized process of the digital transformation of cities.

Paper authors will discuss the following topics:
- the role of CSOs in the process of designing smart city solutions
- potential of organizations to implement citizen science projects to leverage their social goals and pro-environmental agenda
- individual and collective challenges related to implementation of sensor enchanted solutions
- inclusion and exclusion mechanisms related to smart city innovation.

References

Cardullo, P., & Kitchin, R. (2019). Smart urbanism and smart citizenship: The neoliberal logic of ‘citizen-focused’ smart cities in Europe. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 37(5), 813-830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263774X18806508
Meijer, A., & Bolívar, M. P. R. (2016). Governing the smart city: a review of the literature on smart urban governance. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 82(2), 392-408. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852314564308
Shelton, T., & Lodato, T. (2019). Actually existing smart citizens: Expertise and (non) participation in the making of the smart city. City, 23(1), 35-52.
Swyngedouw E, Moulaert F and Rodriguez A (2002) Neoliberal urbanization in europe: large–scale urban development projects and the new urban policy. Antipode 34(3): 542–577.

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