Cities and digital technology Chair: Research & Publications

Cities undergo transformations whose significance and impacts are not yet well perceived. « The smart city driven by digital technology, is poised to replace the typical networked city of the industrial era, whose success was built on its hard infrastructure, from roads to water supply and sanitation systems, not only as a technological optimum but also as a social and political project » (Antoine Picon, Smart cities, Wiley, 2015). The development of digital technologies into cities changes individual and collective practices, transform coordination, business models and lead to the introduction of new stakeholders into urban policies. How do these evolutions question urban policies and transform urban governance?

Based on comparative analysis, the Chair aims to question the impact of digital technologies on urban governance, following four main axes:

Politics of urban data
New stakeholders of urban policies (IT companies, platforms, etc.)
The cities’ strategies and their diverse modes of governance
The interaction between digital and territories (representation, infrastructure, socio-spatial inequalities, urban/rural relationship, etc.)

At the intersection of these axes and through case studies, the Chair aims to produce a cartography that represents the various meanings of digital cities and their socio-political issues to highlight the transformation of urban governance.