Beyond high-tech versus low-tech: A tentative framework for sustainable urban data governance

IF 6.5 1区社会学 Q1 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY

Big Data & Society Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1177/20539517231180583

Vasilis Kostakis, Alex Pazaitis, Minas V. Liarokapis

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Technological imaginaries have been increasingly shaping the future perceptions of cities. From artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology to three-dimensional printing, high-tech artifacts are very often the premises of such imaginaries. However, technology does not only refer to artifacts. Technology also encompasses the processes around the artifacts: how the artifacts are designed, manufactured, used, maintained, and disposed. From this perspective, high-tech visions often disregard problems that pertain to resource extraction, labor exploitation, energy use, and material flows. On the contrary, low-tech and localized alternatives incite lower impact and higher resilience visions. However, they fail to offer solutions of the desired scale and intensity. To address this tension, we provide an alternative vision for mid-tech: a balance between the opposite extreme qualities of low-tech and high-tech. Through a case of open-source prosthetics, we illustrate how to synergistically combine the efficiency and versatility of high-tech solutions with the potential for autonomy and resilience that low-tech offers. Then we discuss a mid-tech approach for distributed ledger technology from a city as a license lens. We provide connections with existing or conceptual applications to show how distributed ledger technology could support more socially and ecologically responsible data practices for city governance.

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超越高科技与低科技:可持续城市数据治理的初步框架

技术想象正日益塑造着人们对未来城市的看法。从人工智能和分布式账本技术到三维打印，高科技产品往往是这种想象的前提。然而，技术并不仅仅指工件。技术还包括围绕工件的过程:工件是如何设计、制造、使用、维护和处置的。从这个角度来看，高科技的愿景往往忽视了与资源开采、劳动力开发、能源使用和物质流动有关的问题。相反，低技术和本地化的替代方案激发了低影响和高弹性的愿景。然而，他们未能提供所需规模和强度的解决方案。为了解决这种紧张关系，我们为中端技术提供了另一种愿景:在低技术和高科技的相反极端品质之间取得平衡。通过一个开源假肢的案例，我们说明了如何将高科技解决方案的效率和多功能性与低技术提供的自主性和弹性潜力协同结合起来。然后，我们从一个城市作为许可透镜讨论分布式账本技术的中端技术方法。我们提供了与现有或概念性应用程序的联系，以展示分布式账本技术如何支持更多对社会和生态负责的城市治理数据实践。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Big Data & Society SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

10.90

自引率

10.60%

发文量

审稿时长

11 weeks

期刊介绍： Big Data & Society (BD&S) is an open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes interdisciplinary work principally in the social sciences, humanities, and computing and their intersections with the arts and natural sciences. The journal focuses on the implications of Big Data for societies and aims to connect debates about Big Data practices and their effects on various sectors such as academia, social life, industry, business, and government. BD&S considers Big Data as an emerging field of practices, not solely defined by but generative of unique data qualities such as high volume, granularity, data linking, and mining. The journal pays attention to digital content generated both online and offline, encompassing social media, search engines, closed networks (e.g., commercial or government transactions), and open networks like digital archives, open government, and crowdsourced data. Rather than providing a fixed definition of Big Data, BD&S encourages interdisciplinary inquiries, debates, and studies on various topics and themes related to Big Data practices. BD&S seeks contributions that analyze Big Data practices, involve empirical engagements and experiments with innovative methods, and reflect on the consequences of these practices for the representation, realization, and governance of societies. As a digital-only journal, BD&S's platform can accommodate multimedia formats such as complex images, dynamic visualizations, videos, and audio content. The contents of the journal encompass peer-reviewed research articles, colloquia, bookcasts, think pieces, state-of-the-art methods, and work by early career researchers.