Ep 19 - Smart Cities of More-Than-Human Futures by Prof. Marcus Foth - a podcast by Common Alternatives

Professor Marcus Foth - from Queensland University of Technology - Hosted by UON-FEDUA Alternative Futures Research Hub

Tuesday 10 Sep 2019, 10am – 2pm incl. lunch-breakThe turn to participation in smart cities was intended to increase the involvement of diverse, often marginalized, citizens in the design and use of networked sensing technologies. However, ideals of activism, citizen engagement, and democratization through the co-design of networked technologies and services have been largely based on an understanding of urban space as separate from nature, and for human inhabitants alone. In current conditions of climate change, pollution, and loss of biodiversity, a human-centered perspective of cities is increasingly problematic.

This Commonist Episode focuses on an expanded more-than-human perspective for cities, informed by studies in the Anthropocene in fields such as STS, geography, planning, and design. We will interrogate how more-than-human perspectives and their resultant ethical, legal, and methodological concerns can shape participatory design practices and services towards cohabitation and push forward a cultural change in the agenda of sustainable smart cities, urban informatics, IoT, and design.

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