In this report, Francesca Bria and Evgeny Morozov discuss how cities can regain control over technology, data, and infrastructure, as well as over the services that are mediated by smart technologies’”such as utilities, transportation, education, and health. Through a wide range of case studies from across the globe, the authors discuss alternative smart city models, which rely on democratic data ownership regimes, grassroots innovation, and cooperative service provision models. Continue reading
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Intelligent Cities / Smart Cities
In his new article, Dr Igor Calzada discusses the role of citizens and their relationship with data in the smart city paradigm. Through a closer look on the case of Barcelona, he argues that there is a growing consideration of citizens as decision-makers rather than data providers. The article is entitled “(Smart) Citizens from Data Providers to Decision-Makers? The Case Study of Barcelona” and it is open access.
The ‘Botellón no me deja dormir΄ project is a collaborative project co-created by the community of neighbours in Plaça del Sol and technology activists from the project Making Sense EU. A diverse group of people collaborated in order to measure the levels of noise pollution in an attempt to claim a more convivial and inclusive public space. Continue reading
The report Talk of the Town: The economic links between cities and towns was recently published by the Centre for Cities in UK. Its main objective is to understand how British cities, towns and villages interact and what is the impact they have on each other. Assuming these interactions affect the standards of living for people across the country and the national economy as a whole, this report shows that cities are home to the majority of the economy provides policy recommendation. Continue reading
The Committee for Sydney has published a new report entitled Smart Engagement: Leveraging Technology for a More Inclusive Sydney. This report focuses on one of the core building blocks of successful smart cities ‘“ effective citizen engagement. It also provides a diverse range of case studies in how smart engagement can work in Sydney, from using traditional methods to emerging, cutting-edge technology like augmented reality (AR) technologies. Continue reading
UN Habitat has published a new report, The State of African Cities 2018: The Geography of African Investment, that aims to contribute to development policies that can turn African cities into more attractive, competitive and resilient foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations. It also provides guidance on the choices needed to be made by cities in their pursuit of FDI, as well as facilitate understanding of the complexity of global investment in Africa. Continue reading
“Opportunity 2030: More Jobs, Better Health, Liveable Cities – Quantifying the benefits of climate change mitigation measures in buildings transport and energy supply” is a new report that analyses how the impacts of climate action through climate policies can not only lead to the reduction of emissions but also can affect health and prosperity in selected global regions. Continue reading