The Impact of ICT on Citizens' Well-being and the Right to the City:

An Introduction.

Anna Domaradzka Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska

Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies
University of Warsaw University of Warsaw
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract needs and preferences as driving values [1] [2]. This

way, new technologies can better shape the wellbeing
As ICT has become an indispensable tool for of urban citizens and their ability to exercise their
policymakers and urban dwellers, there is a growing “right to the city”, defined by Lefebvre [3] as freedom
need for systematic studies on the consequences of its to make and remake our cities according to principles
fast-paced implementation. Although ICT facilitates of democracy, equality and social justice. More
many positive processes and helps to link policy recently, scholars have also proposed a “digital right to
makers with citizens and vice versa, it may also the city” [4] [5] focused on growing digital and virtual
contribute to quality of life decrease and restriction of aspects of exercising citizens’ rights.
democratic freedoms. Our goal is to understand how In this minitrack we discuss the consequences of
new technologies can shape the wellbeing of urban technological developments in the context of urban
citizens and their ability to exercise the “right to the policy-making as well as citizens’ needs and quality of
city”, defined by Lefebvre (1968) as freedom to make life. We develop the existing theoretical line of thought
and remake our cities according to principles of to advance the right to the smart city theory grounded
democracy, equality and social justice. The growing in basic research and existing theoretical achievements.
popularity of the smart city idea means that we need to The synergy of sociological and psychological
explore possible ways of avoiding negative side-effects theoretical concepts (like place attachment, social
of ICT implementation in smart cities worldwide. cohesion, digital citizenship, perceived technological
threat) is a great platform to discuss the impact of
technological innovations on democracy and power
relations, as well as citizens’ quality of life, ability for
1. Introduction mobilization, participation and self-expression. This
requires a study of values driving different models of
smart city development and an analysis of included
The minitrack touches upon two important trends
trade-offs.
increasingly shaping our modern societies, namely the
rise of information and communication technology
(ICT) and growing urbanization. We posit that while 2. Right to the city
ICT becomes an everyday tool for both policymakers
and citizens of modern cities, we need to better The focal point of the proposed minitrack is the
understand the consequences of its fast-paced concept of the right to the city, understood as a basket
implementation on citizens’ well-being and democratic of rights defining the citizenship status of urban
freedoms. dwellers. In the context of growing criticism of smart
This endeavor is particularly important in the view city ideology [1] [2] [6] it is vital to ask how the
of the growing popularity of the idea of a smart city, technological development of urban environment
which incorporates ICT to enhance the quality and influences opportunities to exercise this right in
performance of urban services in order to reduce modern cities around the globe.
resource consumption, wastage and overall The political expression of a right to the city can be
management costs. described in terms of politically and spatially grounded
However, the technological development should urban citizenship [7] [8], realized through claim-
not be treated as a goal in itself, but rather a tool to making and participation in creating urban policies and
achieve better conditions for everybody, with citizens planning of urban space: both physical and digital.
Focusing on the social underpinnings of a right to the distinguish three phases in the development of smart
city, we invited papers that assess the relations between cities: prodromal, sharing city and post-pandemic
ICT and the citizens’ quality of life as well as employ smart city. In the analysis authors follow a modified
psychological factors like belonging, place attachment Pardo and Nam approach which helps to structure the
or place identity and perceived technological threat results in a convincing manner.
[10] [11] [12]. Focusing on the role of smart citizens and the right
to the city concept, the authors point out to the
3. The city and ICT important trends in the smart city development. The
paper includes an interesting discussion both on the
Our main area of interest – the city – is a physical smart city model as well as smart resident as its
space with certain qualities including high density of political subject. The paper develops a systematic
population, mobility, and intensive exchange of reflection about the future of smart cites at the time of
services, goods and ideas. City infrastructure enables COVID-19, analyzing the trends made visible by the
technological development and innovation, creating worldwide sanitary crisis.
spaces where digital solutions are implemented often The second paper, by Anna Wnuk and Tomasz
as a response to problems generated by high density Oleksy, titled “Place attachment and acceptance of
typical for urbanized areas. We observe first signs of smart city technologies”, examine the role of different
city virtualization, with more and more services being types of place attachment (traditional and active
mediated by ICT and an increasing number of emotional bonds with the city) in predicting the
exchanges occurring in digital space. This creates so- acceptance of smart city technologies. The research is
called mixed reality [13] or hybrid reality [14], where sustained by a wide set of hypotheses covering a range
real and virtual worlds merge to produce new of elements that may play a role in the intersection
environments and visualizations where physical and between place attachment and acceptance of
digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. What technology. The paper is timely, as it also included the
emerges is a new intangible layer of information and COVID-19 surveillance technologies in the analysis.
processes in the city, often remaining beyond social Findings indicated that active place attachment
control and too complex to apprehend by an individual. predicted more favorable attitudes towards enabling
However, the growing focus on a virtual city technologies, which make peoples’ life easier during
interface should not undermine the importance of the pandemic. On the other hand, the traditional place
physical space quality and accessibility for individual attachment was positively associated with acceptance
wellbeing and community livability [15]. Therefore, an of surveillance technologies regarding everyday
important link has to be made between the use of new monitoring and anti-COVID-19 measures.
technologies and their effects in terms of life quality, Interestingly, the relationship between place
social cohesion and democracy. attachment and acceptance of future technologies was
Although social scholars and technological partially mediated by the use of the existing smart city
visionaries repeatedly bring up the question, we still technologies.
know very little about the unintended consequences of
ICT development for such important areas of life like 5. Acknowledgments
community cohesion and personal wellbeing. Most
research has neglected citizens’ perspectives on This work was funded by the National Science Centre
technological changes in the city, focusing instead on grant 2018/30/E/HS6/00379, titled “Right to the smart
economical and political aspects [16] [17]. city: the impact of new technologies on quality of life,
Our minitrack adds to the existing body of social relations and urban policy”.
knowledge through basic research and theoretical
efforts focusing on the impact of technological 6. References
progress on socio-political context of modern cities.
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