UrbanTech Ecosystems

Abstract

Urban spaces and cities are fast becoming overcrowded, polluted and unable to meet business and citizen needs. Organisations must work together to create human-centric and sustainable environments and digital technologies will play a pivotal role in achieving this. We explore and critically evaluate how dynamic ecosystems and next-generation digital technologies provide transformative solutions.

Objective

After taking this course, students will be able to: - Understand the key pillars of urban and smart city design and aspirations - Identify and explore different urban governance approaches - Analyse how new multi-partner ecosystems emerge within urban environments - Explore different approaches to transforming urban environments with digital technologies - Critically discuss the ‘darker sides’ of technology and data-driven cities

Content

By 2050, the total number of people living in cities is expected to grow from approximately 4.4 billion today to 6.7 billion (United Nations, 2020). This exponential growth puts significant pressure on organisations and public sector institutions to provide efficient and high-quality services, solutions and experiences for citizens. Many cities are also working towards meeting sustainability and environmental goals, which requires a significant reduction in carbon emissions. This is no easy task and will require a collective effort of public sector institutions, private organisations, entrepreneurial ventures and citizens. Digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and advanced analytics, are often expected to bring about the necessary transformative change to create future-ready cities. In fact, cities are hotbeds for new digital innovation, driven by incubators, accelerators and urban tech funding. While digital technologies are at the heart of new urban solutions, these technologies alone will not be enough. We also need transformative behavioural change as well as effective, collaborative ecosystems to create our future communities. Therefore, we explore different approaches to urban governance. In particular, we consider forms of governance that emerge when human decisions are influenced by real-time data analytics, citizen data and object data. This creates a form of human-tech governance. We also explore governance from an ecosystem perspective which takes place when decisions emerge from an assemblage of participant groups and organisations. Within this discussion, we also explore key issues related to data, privacy, tech-driven progress, surveillance and personalisation. We refer to these as the ‘darker sides’ of UrbanTech transformations, which is an increasingly important topic in today’s data-conscious society. To put our learning into practice, we connect with experienced individuals who are leading the transformation of cities driven by digital technologies and dynamic, collaborative ecosystems. We discuss the opportunities and challenges for different UrbanTech project initiatives. You will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to urban transformation from around the world. We will analyse examples from Scandinavia, North America and Canada, South East Asia and China and The Middle East. These regions offer different perspectives on business ecosystems and how digital technologies can and should be used to create urban spaces of the future.

Resources