Childhood in the Smart City. Digital Transformation of Urban Space and its Implications for Young People's Environments.
Final Report Abstract
The project explores the role of childhood and children in smart city urban development and how visions and realisations of smart city urban planning meet the needs of children in urban development. The prominent concept of the smart city has been the subject of numerous studies over the last ten years. In addition to studies focussing on infrastructure, planning and technology, the ambivalent socio-technical characteristics and social meanings of smart cities have also been highlighted. However, the specific role of children was given little consideration. In order to capture the needs of children and their involvement and thematisation in smart city projects, the project combines field research with children in the Vienna Simmering case study, where a European Union (EU) smart city lighthouse project was implemented between 2016 and 2019, with a programme analysis of 17 EU smart city lighthouse projects. While the programme analysis shows how childhood is conceptualised in smart city programmes and how children are addressed and included, the case study shows firstly what needs children have in their neighbourhood and what ideas and demands they have for urban development and secondly how the planned and implemented smart city transformations respond to them. The results show that childhood and the role of children are prominent topics in the programmes of smart city projects. However, despite some extensive programmes for children and a broad thematisation of children, children themselves and their own concerns often receive little attention. The smart city lighthouse projects investigated address children in the sense of governmental control policies through numerous programme elements that aim to empower them to act independently and take responsibility for sustainable cities. Children’s spaces and living environments are proving to be particularly promising in the implementation of smart city projects in order to strategically achieve these goals. In the smart city discourse, the presentation oscillates between emphasising the need to protect child-friendly spaces and social areas and portraying children as particularly open to technical innovations that have the potential to significantly improve their future prospects. Young people are portrayed as capable of learning and performing and therefore particularly suitable for integrating smart lifestyles into society quickly and sustainably. The programmes’ focus is on the issues of digitalisation, technology and sustainability. However, this focus and the often one-dimensional approach and selective involvement of children hardly do justice to the reality of their lives and their needs. Issues such as participation, equal opportunities and more than human community and care are equally relevant to young people but receive little attention in urban development focused on smart technologies, even though they are central to a sustainable city now and in the future.
Publications
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Kindheit. In: Bork-Hüffer, Tabea/Füller/Henning Füller/Straube, Till (Hrsg.): Handbuch Digitale Geographien: Welt – Wissen – Werkzeuge. Stuttgart: UTB, S. 92-102.
Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana
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Smarte Kindheiten. sub\urban. zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 9(3/4), 57-82.
Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana & Schreiber, Verena
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Geographiedidaktische Forschung als ethische Praxis. Ethik für die Geographiedidaktik, 149-168. transcript Verlag.
Schreiber, Verena & Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana
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Stadt entdecken – Kindheit, Bildung und Ungleichheit. Stadtgeographie, 223-251. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Schreiber, Verena & Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana
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Moving through, interacting with, and caring for the city. Children's and young people's everyday experiences in smart cities. Digital Geography and Society, 4, 100051.
Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana
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Partizipativ forschen in institutionellen Settings: Beobachtungen aus geographischer Forschung mit Kindern und Jugendlichen, Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, September 2023, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
Schreiber, Verena
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Partizipativ forschen. Transformative Geographische Bildung, 237-243. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Ghafoor-Zadeh, Dana
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Children in Smart Communities: Between Acting Responsibly and Shouldering Responsibility, The X Conference on Childhood Studies, Mai 2024, University of Helsinki
Schreiber, Verena
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Funny Melodies, Precious Crystals and Blue Rings under the Eyes. Children and Young People’s Experiences of Living with Smart Cities, Performing Childhoods Conference, November 2021, University of Otago
Schreiber, Verena
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Zukunftsfähige Städte gestalten: Visionen und Bedürfnisse von Kindern in aktuellen Stadtentwicklungsprozessen, Tagung Neue Kulturgeographie, Mai 2024, Universität Münster
Schreiber, Verena
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Conjuring up the future – neglecting the present. Being a child in today’s sustainable and smart city. Children's Geographies, 1-16.
Appel, Antonia; Reul, Dana & Schreiber, Verena
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Kindheit in der Smart City. transcript Verlag.
Reul, Dana
