Socio-Technical 'Patchwork' in the "Smart City": Predictive Platforms, Civic Imagination and Anticipatory Urbanism

• In Event: Entanglements in Critical Data Practices: Perspectives from Design Inquiry

Abstract

While top-down corporate "smart city" initiatives are often framed in opposition to bottom up "civic technology" initiatives, in reality, these boundaries between these two modes are blurred, co-evolving and entangled in a number of interesting ways that are best understood by taking a longitudinal approach to urban technology and related data practices. In some ways, both of these technocentric modes, could be understood as technologically deterministic and disconnected from social needs. However, on the other hand, they might be also understood as generative and experimental ways of "searching" for an appropriate fit between technology and humanity. While top-down models are often framed as technologies in search of a solution or "if we build it they will come," bottom up models are more likely to engage human-centered design, participatory design, speculative design, or civic hackathons. As progressive scholars and technologists promote a "city as platform" narrative that draws on technological frameworks and metaphors, it is also necessary to question these frames and advance alternative forms of relations between cities and technologies. The tension between prediction using large data sets and speculation around possible alternative futures is also explored. This paper discusses examples of both top-down and bottom-up urban technology initiatives from New York and Chicago including wireless networks, smart grids, sensor networks and autonomous vehicles. Yet, in the case of Chicago, government and corporate initiatives around innovation and the "smart city" have taken an interest in human-centered and participatory processes in order to build relationships and identify "user needs".

Author

• Laura Forlano, Illinois Institute of Technology