Talk: [REC]OUNT The Promise of Smart Cities: Quantification, Citizenship, and Smart Cities

“Smart” cities promise a more efficient, sustainable, and personalized urban life: better mobility, optimized energy, predictive security, and faster public services. But this promise has a hidden side that we often do not see. It is built on the constant quantification of everyday life, through indicators, rankings, and urban KPIs. Datafication turns all our movements, habits, and decisions into data. It also entails an increasing automation of public management.

In exchange for convenience and personalized services, we give more and more data about ourselves. The more data is concentrated, the easier it becomes to predict and control people’s behavior. In other words, we receive more “service” but lose autonomy as citizens. The city stops listening to us as subjects and begins to treat us simply as signals. Citizenship is reduced to measurable behaviors and politics disappears into the hands of technology. Who defines what a “better service” is? Which indicators do we decide are valid? Which biases become normalized without us noticing? Which lives are left out of the calculations? These are the questions we want to explore in this conversation.

The [REC]ount project aims to open a space to critically reflect on these transformations. It is not about rejecting technology, but about asking what real impact it has on urban rights, such as mobility, access to public aid, surveillance, housing, or participation.

Organized by: Canòdrom.