People-Centered Smart Cities: An exploratory action research on the Cities’ Coalition for Digital Rights

Abstract

Declarations and manifestos have emerged across the world claiming to protect citizens’ digital rights. Data-driven technologies in global cities not only have yielded techno-euphoria but also have intensified techno-political concerns as reflected in UN-Habitat’s flagship program called “People-Centered Smart Cities” (PCSC) that advocates the willingness to promote inclusiveness while subverting the technocratic smart city meaning. Against this backdrop, in 2018, the city councils of Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York formed the Cities’ Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR), an international network of cities—currently encompassing 49 cities—to promote globally citizens’ digital rights. Inspired by Arendt’s famous quote, this article explores what “the right to have digital rights” may currently mean, drawing on a sample consisting of 13 CCDR cities. Through action research to examine six digital rights-related factors, full findings revealed not only distinct strategies—related to AI adoption—but also common policy patterns in the 13 CCDR cities.