(Smart) City and the (Open) Data. A Critical Approach to a Platform-driven Urban Citizenship

Abstract

This paper represents a first attempt to reconstruct a theoretical map of the relation between technology (digital media) and citizenship. We start from the reconstruction of the role of citizens in the smart city paradigm and then face the challenge that the so-called Big Techs move to the ideal of an engaged "smart community" by promoting an individual relationship between users/citizens and digital platforms. Finally, we present two emerging participation paradigms concerning Data Activism and Cooperativism, which seem to represent relevant fields for experiencing (and observing) the agency of a future, networked citizenship.

Keywords

• citizen participation
• digital platforms
• smart city
• technology
• urban experience