Big data urbanism. The promises and risks of the smart city paradigm - SS 17
Lehrende
Modul
Zuordnung
Termin
Seminar
Sarah Widmer
Technoscience and the City: Advances in Urban Theory
MA Architektur/ MA Urbanistik
Montags, 11:30 - 13:00 Uhr
3 ECTS
Cities are increasingly instrumented with sensors, experienced with the help of GPS or smartphones, and variously described on social media through pictures, texts, check-ins and the like. As a result, urban daily life is growingly captured as digital data, contributing to the contemporary “data deluge” more commonly referred to as “big data”. Recently, data have been portrayed as the “new oil” of our century, a raw material that can be algorithmically mined and from which new layers of information (e.g. patterns, correlations, etc.) can be extracted. As a result, big data trigger high expectations regarding their ability to change the definition of knowledge, and to allow new insights on phenomena such as disease distribution, crime patterns, business trends, etc. At the same time, these expectations are counterbalanced by more critical voices, pointing to the invasions of privacy, the discriminations, and the increased state and corporate control that accompany big data developments. This seminar will particularly focus on the implications of these evolutions for the ways in which cities are currently understood, developed and governed. In this endeavor, we connect “urban big data” with the current conceptions of “smart urbanism”, in which the accumulation, interconnection and analysis of digital data are regarded as the basis for more efficient and sustainable ways of managing the city. The seminar will be articulated around three main topics. Firstly, we will have a look at the stakes posed by the growing datafication of city life (‘the datafied city’). Secondly, we will address some of the challenges and issues raised by the algorithmic governance of urban life (‘the algorithmic city’). The third part of the seminar will more particularly address the ways in which the big data paradigm is affecting our epistemic and professional practices as urban planners/architects/geographers.
1. Familiarizing students with the current debates and controversies surrounding data-driven and smart urbanism. 2. Developing students' sensitivity to the politics of data and algorithms and their impact on how cities are currently understood and performed. 3. Developing students' sensitivity to the ways in which big data and smart urbanism narratives affect our epistemic and professional practices
Englisch
Teaching and learning method : The seminar will be based on the discussion of scientific texts dealing with urban big data / smart city initiatives. Workload for students: For each session, students have to read the text and prepare some answers to the questions brought by the lecturer in the previous session. At the end of the semester, students hand out an essay of 2000-2500 words (cf. assessment)
Anmerkung: To pass the seminar, students are expected to complete the following tasks: - Read obligatory readings before each seminar, actively discuss all readings in class - Write an essay on a topic related to big data/ smart urbanism. This essay can be based on personal interest or on one of the case studies proposed by the lecturer during the first session of the seminar. This essay should be framed around a general research question. Students are expected to use the readings and discussions raised during the seminar to develop their own problematisation of the specific stakes involved in their case study. The essay (2000-2500 words) will include : a short introduction into the topic, a research question, a nuanced analysis of the politics of urban big data/ smart urbanism based on the literature studied in class + additional readings and documentation conducted by the students (this analysis has to bring answers to the formulated research question).
