Around the world, cities increasingly aim to become ‘smart’. After a decade of top-down implementations by large scale actors, diverse and small-scale initiatives have been actively hacking and reprogramming the means and ends of smart city practices. In this dialogue, we trace this evolution and discover answers on the question; how do we make smart cities socially just?
Speakers
• Ryan Burns – University of Calgary, Canada
Recently there has been a growing chorus of voices recognizing the importance of urban groups that are neither top-down nor bottom-up, yet exert enormous influence on how smart cities develop and operate, and even on how we think of "smartness". Ryan will draw on a 6-year ongoing study in Calgary, Alberta, to examine two such groups that are what he calls "interstitial actors". The first are those who are situated between the top and bottom of the smart city hierarchy, such as community associations, non-profit organizations, and ad-hoc task groups. The second group is comprised of groups who use digital technologies differently than smart city managers imagine them to, for example, youth and the elderly, or recent newcomers. These groups raise a specter of marginalization that influences how digital systems are framed as "solutions" and then pursued. His goal in this talk is to start the urgent conversation around who gets to decide the future of cities when "smartness" is the guiding value. Who gets left out? Who benefits, and how? Ryan argues that thinking about and attending to these interstitial actors is an issue of social justice, which might, perhaps, require that we abandon the pursuit of "smartness" altogether.
• 𝗝𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗩𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗽 – 𝗪𝗮𝗮𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘁𝘆, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀
Judith Veenkamp is the lead of the Amsterdam Based Waag Society's Smart Citizens Lab and head of Life programme. With her passion for new technologies and data solutions for societal issues she is at the right place here. She develops concepts and shapes projects to create innovative solutions together with citizens and stakeholders. She is involved in European projects in the field of mobility and built up experience as communication advisor on the edge of governance, policy and citizenship and earlier studied Politics, Conflict Studies and Human Rights. In her spare time she is part of DataMission: a network that connects organisations with a social mission to data scientists, developers and coders. Building on this experience will navigate us through radical and socially driven initiatives in the world of smart cities that will help us to answer the core question of this evening.
• 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗷𝗻 𝗢𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆𝗻𝗰𝗸 – 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗽, 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗴𝗶𝘂𝗺 (𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿)
Stijn is professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Antwerp, Department of Sociology. He is chairman of the Centre for Research on Environment and Social Change (CRESC, formerly OASeS) and the Urban Studies Institute Antwerp. His research focuses on local social innovation and the restructuring of the welfare state, the political sociology of urban development, urban regeneration and community building, new forms of solidarity in diversity and urban diversity policy.
Organisation
This event part of the Make The City series, organized by Stadsform in collaboration with Antwerp Urban Studies Institute.
Practical
This event will take place with COVID Safe Ticket that you can present with a smartphone or on paper. Wearing a face mask is not mandatory. Booking a free seat is mandatory.
Livestream
Can’t attend? Follow the livestream via the Facebookpage of Stadsform.
Discover Judith’s work via the VPRO Tegenlicht episode ‘Herover je data’ (Dutch) via this link.