Smart urbanism in Barcelona

Abstract

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Digitization and urban governance: The city as a reflection of its data infrastructure

“…The case of Barcelona shows this. Documented by De Hoop et al (2018), Barcelona negotiated a turn between smart technology controlled by the democratic, institutional and corporate bodies of the city, and a more grass-roots and participatory emphasis on direct urban democracy arising from communal action. The turn between these two emphases was marked by the replacement of Mayor Trias (2011–2015) with Mayor Colau.…”

“…Under Colau, a smart Barcelona would manifest an alternative, cooperative ‘solidarity economy’ that was partly enabled by digital technology but concerned with the prosaic pressures of sharing food among the needy and of fighting evictions. As De Hoop et al (2018: 43) summarize:Activists saw two different cities: the elite Barcelona using smart city as a brand in its neo-liberal competition for capital – a city rendered into an efficient and convivial location for mass tourism and the global knowledge economy; and the Barcelona of neighborhood activism, struggling to build from below what they considered to be a more democratic urbanism capable of addressing issues and problems considered inherent to the neo-liberal model.…”

“…As De Hoop et al (2018: 45) further argue, the newer, grass-roots emphasis in Barcelona is for people to participate ‘not as data points, but as co-designers’.…”

“…In Trias's term, an acclaimed vision for a 'smart' Barcelona was developed. This was to be characterized by open data protocols, automated street systems, fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) and a city operating system 'that would interconnect information from across the multiplying sensor networks and data gathering platforms in different city administration departments, and hence boost the ability of city authorities to observe and manage their intelligent city in real time' (Hoop et al, 2018). A clear implication of the project was that it would be associated with the techsavvy, that is, those interested in a strategic vision of a globally significant, technological city.…”

A participatory approach for empowering community engagement in data governance: The Monash Net Zero Precinct

“…Despite these debates, challenges remain in how to ensure urban communities are empowered to have their say over the ways in which they are involved in data governance. In the academic literature, data has been a prominent theme in urban scholarship exploring topics related to multistakeholder governance, community engagement and data rights in the context of smart city strategy (de Hoop et al, 2018; Morozov and Bria, 2018; Yigitcanlar et al, 2019). Investment in smart cities have sparked intense debates about the enclosing influence of the private sector in urban planning and critical infrastructure provision (Goodman and Powles, 2019; Carr and Hesse, 2020).…”