| Course information | |
|---|---|
| Period | Block 2 |
| Timeline | March |
| Number of ECTS | 5 ECTS |
| Coordinator | Dr Sofia Pagliarin |
| Lecturers | Dr Sofia Pagliarin and Dr Jan Fransen |
| Methodology | Interactive lectures, discussions, workshops. |
Course description
Since the 1970s, the role of information and telecommunication technologies (ICTs) has increasingly expanded and become pervasive in many domains of society, including the workings of contemporary cities. In our so-called Network Society or Information Age, digital technologies — and more recently AI — have transformed and also posed challenges to the ways we find information and learn, we move and travel in and between cities, and interact with each other.
The Specialisation deepening module in Urban Digital Transformations (UDT) provides foundational knowledge in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to understand, analyse and critically evaluate the transformations brought about by technologies in society and in contemporary cities. The main claim structuring the UDT course is that we can understand current urban digital transformations by comprising them in broader debates and research about the interaction between technology and society, and between humans and machines.
The UDT course will last for four weeks. We will start by getting acquainted with key theoretical contributions and empirical analyses in the domain of Science and Technology Studies (STS) by mainly adopting the perspective of sociology of technology. Subsequently, through an interdisciplinary approach combining sociology of technology, political economy, governance studies and urban and spatial planning, we will specifically examine the role of technologies in contemporary cities by applying the concepts of technopolis, knowledge-based city, smart city and AI urbanism, and critically analyse the role of (big) data in digitalised (more than simply “smart”) cities and the concept of algorithmic governance.
These concepts will be critically assessed through academic readings, workshops and discussions in class, where we will analyse their application to case studies and examples. The students will also analyse concrete smart city policies and practices that have been implemented in cities worldwide to develop skills on applied digitalisation strategies. The course will devote attention to processes of digitalisation in a diversity of urban contexts across the Global North and the Global South.
The Specialisation deepening module in Urban Digital Transformations (UDT) targets students interested in an interdisciplinary approach to understand and critically analyse digital transformations and processes in contemporary societies, and cities in particular. The course is particularly tailored to students that would like to have a solid conceptual basis to engage in both academic and practice-oriented research in urban digitalisation, for instance as PhD candidates, consultants for urban digital policies and interventions, or as smart city managers.
Learning objectives
After completing the Urban Digital Transformations (UDT) course, students will be able to:
- Understand selected approaches in Science and Technology Studies (STS) to analyse the technology-society and human-machine interactions.
- Understand and critically examine concepts related to the integration of technologies (including big data) in contemporary cities.
- Analyse concrete policies and practices of urban digital transformation in different cities.
- Create an individual podcast episode by critically elaborating on selected concepts from the course material and applying them to an urban case study of the students’ own choice.
Course structure
The course develops over four weeks. During each week, participants will learn about different theories and concepts through examples, workshops and discussions, and gradually move towards a more practice-oriented approach to analyse smart city policies and practices that have been concretely implemented in cities worldwide.
By moving from the larger theoretical debates and empirical contributions of Science and Technology Studies (STS), during the first week we will explore the domain of sociology of technology and focus on the critical and constructivist approaches of socio-technology (SCOT) and actor-network theory (ANT) to understand and analyse technology-society and human-machine interactions. The first week constitutes a theoretical baseline to approach the following weeks of the course and to prepare for the course assignment.
During the second and third week, we will critically examine the integration of technologies in cities through the concepts of technopolis and knowledge-based city, as precursors of the concept of smart city and the most recent notion of AI urbanism. We will also analyse the use of (big) data in digitalised cities (rather than simply “smart”) and the concept of algorithmic governance in supporting collective decision-making in contemporary cities.
These concepts will allow students to understand the academic debates that emerged over time in the attempt to analyse urban digital transformations empirically in different contexts across the Global North and the Global South.
In the third week, we will apply the knowledge accumulated so far by analysing and evaluating concrete smart city policies and practices that have been implemented in cities worldwide. Through a formative assignment, students will be able to develop practice-oriented skills to explore and potentially develop strategies for urban digitalisation.
The last week of the course is devoted to the preparation of the course assignment. Students will be able to reach out for feedback and help for developing their ideas for the assignment submission.
Teaching and learning approach
The course combines interactive lectures and structured discussions during workshops. The workshop sessions on policies and practices of urban digital transformation are meant to provide students with opportunities to develop practical skills to explore and potentially design strategies for urban digitalisation.