ISCN Global Mixer: Digital City-Makers - Grassroot Initiatives in Digital Urban Development

Urban planning and governance face ever-increasing challenges in reconciling digital innovation with justice and sustainability needs. In this ISCN Global Mixer, Martin Bangratz (RWTH Aachen) presented the research project “Digital City-makers” and the role of grassroots initiatives in shaping the life and development of cities. Through a mixed-methods, cross-case analysis of three geographically diverse contexts, his research unveils various ways in which digital technologies are appropriated by and for communities.

These digitally enhanced bottom-up processes, ranging from supporting local governments in Japan, leveraging corporate skills for societal benefit in the U.S., to creating alternatives to hegemonic planning in Germany, can be seen as complementary and networked ways of urban participation. They do not just utilize digital technologies; they actively (re)appropriate them with the intention to serve the community's best interests. They employ self-managed methods for collecting, curating, visualizing, and governing both local spaces and data. 
This presentation gave an overview of global initiatives with local impacts by showcasing practical examples and touched on some of the critical debates surrounding urbanism in the digital age.

The event was part of the ISCN Global Mixer, a series of events organized by the International Smart Cities Network. The presentations cover a wide range of topics related to international smart city approaches and provide exciting insights into urban digitalization worldwide - in just 30 minutes.