Toward Just Smart Cities: Community-based Art Organisations as Partners in Design Justice

The smart city paradigm has had a prominent role in urban planning, management, and operations for the last two decades; it is seen as a potential solution to challenges stemming from fast urban growth, and considered to be essential for a sustainable future. Initially taking the shape of optimistic top-down projects in which technology is deemed to solve all social issues, it has recently faced considerable criticism. Shift towards the so-called “human-centric design”, which places the end-user at the centre of the design process is however not realising its promises: introducing “co-creation” processes with pre-determined manners of interaction with users often leads to pseudo-participation. A particular danger lies in applying this approach to marginalised communities, where the one-size-fits-all logic fails to encompass the full complexity of identities and of needs at stake, and of the various levels of oppression exhibited by the existing power relationships. Sensitivity of marginalised groups calls for different approaches to tech innovations in smart cities, as those focusing on concepts such as intersectionality and principles of social justice. Frameworks such as Design Justice are in particular intended to promote community-led practices and collaboration between designers and social movements. The paper introduces a series of critical questions reconsidering the Design Justice framework in the context of digital
innovation and smart cities. Furthermore, attempting to reintroduce art and culture into the discussion on sustainable urban development, the paper elaborates by means of a few examples on whether community-based arts organisations can play a role in design justice, suggesting that they could become key partners in this endeavour.