Over the past year, I’ve had a chance to talk with a few dozen Chief Innovation Officers and other city managers implementing software projects. There is almost universal agreement that three things are important: Developing a shared vision Fostering citizen engagement Addressing ethical issues These three things are important priorities. What kinds of resources are…
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Building Urban Publics
The Our Michigan Ave website is a timely space for deliberation as hundreds of millions of dollars of development projects are underway in Greater Lansing. Our connections to planners, developers, government officials, and community organizations positioned the Our Michigan Ave site to be a rich space for public deliberation. Students in my Global Studies in…
Collaborative Approaches to Smart City Frameworks
I’m going to sketch a trajectory for making rhetoric, which has always been at the heart of city-making and community building, even more vital in an era of Smart Cities. My project is an iterative, emergent and collaborative effort, so I’d love to benefit from your insights going forward. Since before the time of Aristotle,…
A Smarter Greater Lansing
During most of the twentieth century, Michigan was one of the most successful industrial powerhouses on the planet. And it is not surprising that this industrial perspective has deeply shaped the mindset of this community. But we’ve moved away from an era when the economy was marked by qualities like long-term trust, union wages, repetitive…
Humanities Frameworks for Smart City Managers
I’m working with a team of students and colleagues. We will create sustainable, usable humanities frameworks for city managers grappling with the consequences of new smart city initiatives by drawing upon sophisticated humanities perspectives for understanding issues of agency, representation, deliberation and equity. Over the next 20 years, $41 trillion will be invested in smart…
Humanities and the Smart City
In the November 12 issue of the New York Times, architect Marshall Brown worried that, The current discourse around the future of autonomous vehicles is centered on “technologically deterministic fantasies”… technological values — like logic, predictability and efficiency — will be erroneously imposed upon the built environment, leading to urban spaces that fail to take…