News and Research articles on Smart cities

Identifying potential emerging human rights implications in Chinese smart cities via machine-learning aided patent analysis

Joss Wright, University of Oxford
Valentin Weber, German Council on Foreign Relations
Gregory Finn Walton, SecDev Group
PUBLISHED ON: 28 Jul 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.3.1718

We focus on using patent data, with machine learning methods, in the context of China, for the purpose of tracking the pace of development of potentially human rights sensitive smart city technologies.

Slow-governance in smart cities: An empirical study of smart intersection implementation in four US college towns

Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Brett Frischmann, Villanova University
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.1.1703

This empirical study of governance and ethics regarding the adoption of smart intersection in four US college towns, structured by the Governing Knowledge Commons (GKC) framework, calls for deliberative, slow-governance of public data to respect human rights and align with community norms.

This special issue brings together scholars from a range of disciplines to identify the human rights implications of algorithmic, biometric and smart city technologies and the means to govern them. In the editorial, we propose a framework for the analysis and design of human-rights-based smart cities.

Substantively smart cities – Participation, fundamental rights and temporality

Philipp Hacker, European University Viadrina Frankfurt
Jürgen Neyer, European University Viadrina Frankfurt
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.1.1696

Smart cities need citizen participation, robust data protection, non-discrimination and AI governance to effectively address the challenges of ever-changing technologies, function creep and political apathy.

European smart city technology development suffers from one-sided inputs and high compliance costs. Due to this developers may look into markets with lower standards for human rights compliance.

An analysis of the EU data protection legislation and the AI Act proposal to assess, in light of the principle of proportionality, whether or not law enforcement authorities should be prohibited from using these technologies in "real time".

Older people and the smart city – Developing inclusive practices to protect and serve a vulnerable population

Aaro Tupasela, University of Helsinki
Juanita Devis Clavijo, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Marjut Salokannel, University of Helsinki
Christoph Fink, University of Helsinki
PUBLISHED ON: 31 Mar 2023 DOI: 10.14763/2023.1.1700

The use of new technologies, such as location-based information devices, can provide up-to-date and precise information regarding the challenges that older people face while moving around the city, but they pose privacy concerns at the same time.