Who Counts in the Smart City?

Date: Wednesday, 15 Sep 2021 | 16:00-17:00 CET

Abstract: Sensors are integral components of smart cities infrastructure, carrying with them the (sometimes elusive) promise of real-time information collection, improved decision making, and efficiency. The difficulties—especially from an inequality perspective—of attaining these hoped-for goals are widely acknowledged but rarely assessed through an explicitly spatial lens. In this talk, I illustrate the challenge of spatial equity and inclusiveness where air-quality sensor networks are concerned, invoking the concept of a “sensor desert” to highlight the importance of demography, urban analytics, and citizens’ perspectives for developing solutions that are both fair and useful.

Speaker Biography: Rachel Franklin is Professor of Geographical Analysis at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) and the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. She is also a visiting scholar at the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University in the United States and the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) in Italy, a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, and current editor of Geographical Analysis. Professor Franklin’s research focus is in spatial demography and the interplay between spatial analytics and demographic change, in particular quantifying patterns, sources and impacts of spatial inequality.