Cities are becoming smarter—but are they becoming more human?
Since the beginning of this century, the arrival of governmental urban technology in public spaces – aka smart city tech – promises to keep the city clean, safe and well maintained. The liveability and even the quality of life in cities is claimed to improve according to this narrative. Although the efficiency and short term effectiveness of city municipalities seem to improve, there are serious unintended consequences of the growing number of technologies that push human presence, communication and interaction mostly ‘out of the loop’. And with that the subtle, but crucial, situational judgments that arise when humans interact.
This is the introduction of an article called ‘Reclaiming the human dimension in automated urban enforcement services’ that researchers Tessa Steenkamp and Mike de Kreek wrote as a result of their research for the Human Values for Smarter Cities project. The article is published in The State of Responsible Tech 2025 publication, launched at the RIOT2025 Unconference.
More info on the Human Values for Smarter Cities research project here.
Many thanks for Human Values for Smarter Cities consortium partner ThingsCon for taking the initiative for the publication.