Digital society
The politics of urban digital infrastructures

Discussion | 22.04.2021, 7 pm.
Live at Goethe-Institut, Hanoi and at Deutsches Haus, Ho Chi Minh City
Registration at 6:30 p.m. | Start at 7 p.m.

Online via Zoom
Start at 6:45 p.m.

Zoom-Link to the discussion

‘The politics of urban digital infrastructures’

MATERIALS TO PREPARE FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE LECTURE(PDF, 447 KB)

Already more than half of the world’s population lives in cities – and this number is growing. Modern cities depend largely on invisible infrastructures that usually only become noticeable when they cease functioning. Similarly, the internet is also a material infrastructure, although it is often portrayed as immaterial. The much-hyped ‘Smart Cities’ promise to digitise the urban merging of these two infrastructural layers. But what happens when they fail? Can cities be smart – and should they be in the first place? What are the interests and values embodied in these infrastructures? How do we make sure that cities in the digital society remain public spaces? How can they be designed to foster social benefits and not just commercial interests?