Towards a Citizen- and Citizenry-Centric Digitalization of the Urban Environment: Urban Digital Twinning as Commoning

Abstract

In this paper, we make a case for (1) a sociotechnical understanding and (2) a commoning approach to the governance of digital twin technologies applied to the urban environment. The European Union has reinstated many times over the willingness to pursue a citizen-centric approach to digital transformation. However, recent studies show the limits of a human right-based only approach in that this overlooks consequences of data-driven technologies at societal level. The need to synthesize an individual-based and collective-based approach within an ecosystemic vision is key, especially when it comes to cities, which are complex systems affected by problems whose solutions require forms of self-organization. Tackling the limitations of current tech-centered and practice-first city digital twin (CDT) projects in Europe, in this article, we conceptualize the idea of urban digital twinning (UDT) as a process that is contextual, iterative, and participatory. Unpacking the normative understanding of data-as-resource, we claim that a commoning approach to data allows enacting a fair ecosystemic vision of the digitalization of the urban environment which is ultimately both citizen- and citizenry-centric.