The right to the (smart) city

Starting point

Barcelona is working to become a city with more public housing, fewer private vehicles, and more green areas; a more sustainable and democratic city with more opportunities for earning a living as well as more forums where citizens can get involved, express themselves, and feel empowered.

The goal is to guarantee the right to a digital city, and the aim of this SCEWC 2018 was to turn technology into an ally for achieving fundamental social rights and meeting the main challenges currently facing the city, such as gentrification.

The digital revolution is also a data revolution. The city has become a real-time big-data production space: 90% of the data we generate today, as a city, did not exist three years ago, and new technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things are fuelling this trend.

The Barcelona Digital City plan promotes the resolution of city and citizen challenges through a more democratic use of technology, promoting technological and digital innovation for more open government, as a tool for the development of a plural economy that fosters social and environmental transformation, always taking citizen empowerment into account.

Scope

A technology is needed which puts people at the centre, and promotes the democratisation of the four key areas that provide the framework for people’s everyday lives: each morning, leaving the place we live in (housing) to travel (mobility) to a place for earning or spending a salary (the market), and afterwards, dedicating time to leisure, culture, education, and participation (agora).

There are several initiatives and projects underway in each of these domains: