ABSTRACT

Previous scholarship on the smart city has expressed concern at the top-down, technocratic nature of smart technologies and the lack of meaningful citizen participation in their development. In this paper, we utilize instrumentalization theory to trace the initiation, design and deployment of a specific smart city initiative: bikeshare in Hamilton, Ontario. Smart bikeshare is increasingly seen as complicit in processes of social stratification, serving a predominately white, middle-class demographic and particular locales. Our case study reveals the potential of reflexive design praxes to reconfigure bikeshare as a platform for both instrumental and social value. In particular, we highlight how collaborative, open and inclusive forms of urban governance can enroll a broad range of civic actors to create a scheme that embodies diverse but complimentary goals and ideologies. We conclude that instrumentalization theory provides a conceptual means to open up the “black box” of urban design to critical interrogation, and to identify how to enact participatory design and citizen-centric smart urbanism.

摘要

之前关于智慧城市的学术研究对智能技术的自上而下、技术官僚性质以及缺乏有意义的公民参与其发展表示担忧。在本文中，我们利用工具化理论来追踪特定智慧城市计划的启动、设计和部署：安大略省汉密尔顿的共享单车。智能共享单车越来越被视为社会分层过程的同谋，主要服务于白人、中产阶级人口和特定地区。我们的案例研究揭示了反思性设计实践重新配置共享单车作为工具和社会价值平台的潜力。特别是，我们强调如何协作，开放和包容的城市治理形式可以吸引广泛的公民行动者来创建一个体现多样化但互补的目标和意识形态的计划。我们得出结论，工具化理论提供了一种概念手段，可以打开城市设计的“黑匣子”以进行批判性审讯，并确定如何实施参与式设计和以公民为中心的智能城市主义。