Are public makerspaces a means to empowering citizens? The case of Ateneus de Fabricació in Barcelona

Since the beginning of the 2010s, the existence of widespread shared workshops has enabled access to digital manufacturing tools. Mainly located in urban areas, these facilities seek to make means of production, to design, prototype and repair all kinds of objects available to the citizens. These practices have been supported by activists of the “democratization” of digital manufacturing spearheaded by the maker movement. Urban authorities have gradually been won over by the these activits’ promises to encourage entrepreneurship, generate new knowledge, mobilize citizens and even transform the perceptions of and the way in which manufacturing is conducted in the city. However, these activists’ attractive discourse overly mechanically equates the accessibility of these digital tools to the idea of empowerment. Under what conditions can these practices of making lead to an increase in citizens’ individual and collective power to act, or even to social change? This article aims to answer this question by firstly constructing an analytical framework of makerspaces empowerment, and secondly by analysing the case of the public network of makerspaces in Barcelona: the Ateneus de Fabricació. To do so, our qualitative research will be based on the documentary analysis of official publications, direct observations carried out at the aforementioned workshops, and in-depth interviews with key players Barcelona makerspaces’ scene. Our results will demonstrate that in the context of smart cities, the public acceptance of these places leads to the transformation of administrative practices. Free access to public makerspaces is accompanied by a change in the relationship between public organizations and users in order to promote the empowerment of the inhabitants of Barcelona thanks to these fabrication practices.     

关于我国推进智慧城市的思考与建议——从我国社会经济发展及转型的视角

首先阐述了我国特色的城市化进程以及"智慧城市"产生的背景,其次重点分析了智慧城市区别于数字城市的主要特点以及对传统城市运行管理的影响,并提出了智慧城市的总体架构。基于我国智慧城市的发展现状,结合我国基本国情,探讨了对于我国推进智慧城市的策略思考。最后提出了相关的政策建议。     

From smart cities to smart social urbanism: A framework for shaping the socio-technological ecosystems in cities

Advocated mostly by technology companies, the smart city concept promises participation, democratization and innovative urbanism. Tracking these promises and ideas, this paper explores “smart urbanism” in ten cities from all over Israel. Based on interviews with leading figures in municipalities, smart city consultants and key figures in technological companies (n = 40), the aims of this paper are to assess the efforts of cities to become smart by responding to the following questions: 1. What is guiding the decision-making process in developing technological initiatives? 2. Does context play a role in implementing technological initiatives? 3. How are the residents perceived, and what tools are being used to address residents' digital differences? The key argument of this paper is threefold: first, in the process of becoming a smart city, the roles of public and private actors are blurred, influencing the process of decision making. Second, despite contextual differences, cities adopt similar digital initiatives. Third, technological initiatives that focus on social needs and address inequality in the digital age are still at the margins. The final discussion suggests that most municipalities are still at an early stage of digitization implementation and have the ability to shape and form a vision for the cities as socio-technological ecosystems in a way that will serve their publics as a whole. The paper ends with a call for shifting the focus from the city to society in developing digital initiatives and cultivating smart social urbanism.     

Evaluation of the smart city: Applying the dematel technique

The smart city is a growing multi-dimensional and systematic urban model that offers smart, technological, and sustainable solutions for urban challenges and is separated into various conceptual main and sub-dimensions. In this paper, the smart city concept is addressed by developing a hybrid methodology consisting of two phases. In the first phase, a qualitative analysis is established to determine the smart city concept. In the second phase, the DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) technique is used to examine smart city focusing on the dimensions derived from the literature in the form of six main and 33 sub-dimensions. Data is collected by contacting ten academia experts through a questionnaire specifically designed; open-ended questions and DEMATEL technique assessments. Results indicated that both phases had different outputs. While technology was highlighted and possible managerial issues emerged in the qualitative section, on the contrary, in the quantitative section, ‘smart people’ has emerged as the most important predictor of the smart city while ‘smart governance’ was the least. By the DEMATEL, not only the most and the least important dimensions within each group revealed but also the causer and receiver effects of each dimension. Further, the results and implications of the study are discussed.     

国外智慧城市研究综述

在发达国家",智慧城市"作为一种应对城市人口增长和破解城市化问题的战略手段于20世纪90年代被提出。经过10多年的发展,智慧城市取得了一定研究成果,并在实践环节有所突破。在国内,学者对智慧城市的关注开始于2009年IBM公司提出的"智慧地球"概念,目前对智慧城市的研究尚处于起步阶段。本文从智慧城市的起源、内涵、构成要素、评价等4个方面,全面介绍国外智慧城市的主要研究成果,并对智慧城市未来研究方向进行了展望,以期对我国智慧城市和新型城镇化建设有所借鉴。     

物联网标识服务支撑智慧城市发展

分析了智慧城市建设现状,提出了物联网标识服务是智慧城市建设基础,并对物联网标识服务、智慧城市对物联网标识管理的需求进行了分析,提出了满足智慧城市需求的"物联网标识公共服务平台"建设方案,此方案能够支撑智慧城市快速、大规模建设。     

基于CIM智慧城市的规划

文章对基于CIM智慧城市的规划领域进行研究,指出目前CIM仍停留在BIM和GIS阶段。通过对CIM应用场景的调研,阐述在基于CIM的智慧城市业态下,如何能够更好的开展“智慧城市”规划,以提升城市规划水平。文章指出,把智能化手段融入到传统城市规划的过程中,应把CIM相关内容(BIM、GIS和IOT)与AI、大数据和云计算等技术相结合,在多场景下对规划方案优选,实现规划精准、要素全面、场景真实的规划效果。还提出CIM不仅应用在智慧城市的规划建筑行业,还覆盖政务服务、城市治理、公共服务、产业经济等多个智慧城市的其他领域,通过基于CIM的智慧城市相关规划手段,可加快智慧城市向前演进的速度。     

智慧城市体系框架浅析

从智慧城市现状入手,提炼智慧城市的"智慧"要素,结合实际问题,描绘智慧城市的"智慧"愿景。由于智慧城市是系统之系统,因此在智慧城市规划、建设时,需要做好顶层设计,遵循系统设计原则,以"共享协同"的智慧城市体系框架为参考,围绕城市运行,构建"集成、融合、开放、协同"的智慧城市公共服务支撑平台,解决信息孤岛,并实现创新的流程再造。     

What Makes Indian Cities Smart? A Policy Analysis of Smart Cities Mission

Despite widespread practices worldwide and increasing research centred on smart urbanism, there is no universal definition for ‘smart cities’. More importantly, a growing line of research warns about the north-centric notion of smart city research which underestimates the fast rate of uptake in the global South. In a search for a contextually informed definition of smart cities, the paper focuses on India: Home to one-third of the global South population, and the cradle of the ambitious Smart City Mission to develop 100 smart cities nationwide. It investigates the Smart City Proposals (SCPs) prepared for the first 20 smart cities prioritised, as part of the Mission. Findings offer a typology of smart city approaches; and shed light on the smart dimensions prioritised (e.g. smart governance, smart citizen and smart infrastructure) versus those overlooked (e.g. smart environment and smart economy) at the smart city policymaking level in India. The paper calls for further empirical research to investigate how the typologies pan out at the implementation of smart cities across the nation.     

智慧城市信息安全体系构建

在智慧城市建设与发展过程中,如何应对与之伴随的信息安全挑战,保证城市的可持续健康发展是一个重要的问题.基于智慧城市的主要组成部分,分别分析了智慧城市各部分面临的信息安全风险,从组织、制度、管理、技术、应急与灾备几个维度出发构筑智慧城市信息安全保障体系.