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Technical democracy as a challenge to urban studies

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  • Ignacio Farías
  • Anders Blok

Abstract

What is technical democracy? And why does it matter for urban studies? As an introduction to this special feature, we address these questions by reflecting on To Our Friends, the 2014 manifesto of the Invisible Committee. We engage in particular its provocative diagnosis of the current situation: power no longer resides in the modern institutions of representative democracy and the market economy; instead, power has become a matter of logistics, infrastructures and expertise. This diagnosis, we suggest, brings into view the challenge of technical democracy, that is, the democratization of techno-scientific expertise and the instauration of forms of lasting collaboration among experts and laypeople. Urban politics, we claim, increasingly turns around socio-technical controversies and it is in terms of the politics of expertise that we should analyse and engage it. Building on Science and Technology Studies (STS), we conclude by pointing to four key conceptual dimensions of technical democracy—shared uncertainty, material politics, collective experimentation and fragile democratization—and provide examples taken from the papers included in this special feature.

Suggested Citation

  • Ignacio Farías & Anders Blok, 2016. "Technical democracy as a challenge to urban studies," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 539-548, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:20:y:2016:i:4:p:539-548
    DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2016.1192418
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    Cited by:

    1. Heaphy, Liam James, 2018. "Interfaces and divisions in the Dublin Docklands 'Smart District'," SocArXiv z2afc, Center for Open Science.
    2. Lily Kong & Orlando Woods, 2018. "The ideological alignment of smart urbanism in Singapore: Critical reflections on a political paradox," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(4), pages 679-701, March.
    3. Heaphy, Liam James, 2018. "Interfaces and divisions in the Dublin Docklands 'Smart District'," OSF Preprints xbrgt, Center for Open Science.
    4. Ross King, 2022. "Networked insurgence and an anti-electoral democracy: Bangkok space 2014–2020," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(4), pages 895-912, June.

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