Track 6
6_DIGITAL CITIES: A COMEBACK FROM UTOPIA
International debate on the role of ICTs as a crucial component for urban renaissance has often been relying on few exceptional examples that could provide lots of best practices and models ready to be transferred almost elsewhere (as for the models, the smart city for instance).
ICTs, also, have been often paired with a broader idea of social innovation and/or with an even broader idea of sustainability, whether the association has been made with sharing economy practices or green(er) energy protocols.
This track intends to pay attention to practices of ICTs led/proclaimed urban transformations and to consider contributions dealing with, but not limited to, the following issues.
Contributors are called to reflect on such issues, but we are open to proposals of different perspectives on the role of ICTs, media and technology in general in contemporary urban transformations.
International debate on the role of ICTs as a crucial component for urban renaissance has often been relying on few exceptional examples that could provide lots of best practices and models ready to be transferred almost elsewhere (as for the models, the smart city for instance).
ICTs, also, have been often paired with a broader idea of social innovation and/or with an even broader idea of sustainability, whether the association has been made with sharing economy practices or green(er) energy protocols.
This track intends to pay attention to practices of ICTs led/proclaimed urban transformations and to consider contributions dealing with, but not limited to, the following issues.
- Which are the effects of a broadly interpreted technological turn in the exacerbation/easing of forms of socio-spatial fragmentation? How societal issues are taken into account in the digital redefinition of the city?
- What is the impact of ICT inspired development paradigms in the local policy-making and governance processes? Is it a matter of adoption of new solutions to existing challenges or the same nature of the interaction between the newest technologies and the urban fabric does also need a cultural and institutional adaptation?
- Which is the effective role of ICTs in the redefinition of the city image and in branding strategies occurring in different parts of the world? At the same time, is there an impact on planning policies and practices or there is a separation of the city image from the image of the city?
- What is the role of big data in the transformation of the city? From dashboards as (part of) a technological solution to end all environmental and resource consumption issues to perspectives of total surveillance, is there more in the mediated city than it is in the definition of a model of urban management?
- What is the contribution of the so-called sharing economy to a bottom-up (social) innovation where there seem to be many advantages due to alternative and more intensive use of existing facilities and resources (e.g. cars, apartments, etc.) while, at the same time, there are disadvantages related to its role in controversial processes, e.g. gentrification of historical centres?
Contributors are called to reflect on such issues, but we are open to proposals of different perspectives on the role of ICTs, media and technology in general in contemporary urban transformations.
