What is Urban Technology? (v1)
What is Urban Technology? (v1)
As a rising college sophomore, I am constantly asked what I’m studying. When I explain I’m getting a bachelors of science in “Urban Technology” I often get confused, or inquisitive responses as to what this new discipline actually is. It’s a rather new term, and while somewhat self-explanatory, the details remain nebulous. As a matter of fact, it’s a running joke in our program that no one, not even ourselves, really knows what “UT” is. Even our future employers are confused, with students needing to defend and accredit the major to them in interviews before they can be trusted with that oh so valuable internship.
With this being said, I am one of many students in the program who actually love to work to answer this question. While rising to the occasion of defining a new area of work and scholarship isn’t for everyone, I find joy and wonder in the various shapes UT can take in our minds, and in the real world. As of writing, I’ve completed one full year of the Urban Technology program, and have some soft goals for my next few years in the program, and what I hope to be doing post-grad. This experience so far has equipped me with knowledge necessary to formulate a working definition of Urban Technology, but I know this won’t stay static. In fact, I hope my definition of Urban Technology changes over my remaining 3 years of study as I learn new things, and apply them to real world and theoretical scenarios. For this reason, I’ve decided to document this definition over time. I intend to write one of these “What is Urban Technology?” articles once a year, almost as a progress report of sorts, to understand how my thinking has evolved and to see what topics are of interest at each given year in the program. With that, I present freshman year edition, (v1):
Intro - Invisible Things
As the name implies, urban technology is the study of topics around technology in urban and social contexts. This includes the development of said tech, design of digital experiences in urban life, the policy defining those experiences or relationships, and more. The invisible pieces and systems of infrastructure that drive everyday life forward can almost all be considered urban tech in some capacity. Transportation, communication, utilities and public works are all fields heavily supported or defined through urban technology, each with their own opportunities for increased connectivity, data reporting, and digitalization. Examples range from items at the interaction level like ticket kiosks, an app to report bike lane violations, or emergency messaging systems; items invisible to the end user like sensors to monitor utilities, or the sophisticated software used to study feasibility of various projects or plans in a given area; to the attempts to create systems or dashboards that aspire to link all of these mentioned devices/services with ease, comparable to Iron Man’s Jarvis.
All of these digital interactions are subject to control and surveillance by multiple different actors each with their own goals and intentions. As illustrated in one of my favorite reads during the winter semester, “A City is Not A Computer” by Shannon Mattern, there is both constructive and destructive ways to shape these technologies in urban life. I personally believe that the degradation and possible loss of true democratic institutions is one of the largest threats facing the global population (a topic I’m sure I will write more about), and while these very technologies in cities have the potential to better democratize many areas of our economy, democratic institutions first must ensure urban technology is deployed and maintained in a just, equitable way to benefit all. These eventual policies governing urban technology will be just as critical as the technologies that already dictate our lives everyday behind the scenes.
UT101 & The History of Urban Technology
In our first semester at the University, us Urban Technology (UT) majors are only required to take one course that is directly related to our area of study; UT101 “Why Cities?”. Upon registration, I was expecting this course to be some combination of urbanist, regional planning basics alongside technofuturistic concepts for cities of the future. After all, flying cars, moving sidewalks and holographic billboards all seem to fit the bill of “Urban Tech”… Instead, we got the exact opposite. In one of our collective Zoom calls before the semester began, we were asked to submit three emojis that represent UT in our minds. One of my three emojis was the traffic signal 🚦because “it’s one of the oldest forms of Urban Technology”. Program director Bryan Boyer responded to me in the chat; “Tell that to the Greeks and Romans with their stone aqueducts and simple machines!”. UT101 goes back to the very start of the city as we know it, as this is where Urban Technology truly began.
The required reading for this course consisted of one book, “The City in History” by Lewis Mumford. Those familiar with Mumford’s work might question why such a forward thinking, advanced program would waste time meddling in the dense, archaic, lengthy work of the author, but as it turned out, Mumford nailed the role of cities in human life, even back in the 1960’s. Mumford explains that cities came to serve a purpose, to gather people together for trade, creative expression, and political debate. As populations grew, markets shifted, and more people wanted to experience dense urban life, technological innovations came about to support these ends. Paved roads, sewage systems, libraries and public plazas are all items that do not fit the twenty-first century definition of “technology”, yet these innovations were pivotal in early cities to help more individuals reach new possibilities together. These were collective innovations designed to serve the masses, with no intention of exclusion (obviously not taking the obvious segregation of serfs and others in the feudal state of medieval times into account) or to serve any other purpose besides enabling further progress among the general population. This should be the ultimate goal of urban technology, and to lose sight of this today would be detrimental. In today’s age of neoliberal and surveillance capitalism, many private (and some public) institutions have been robbed of the ability to create technological innovation for the common good, and instead are forced to focus on primitive accumulation, advertising, and “bottom of the funnel” customers, leading to ostracism and banishment of vulnerable populations.
Mumford partially touches on this exact reality in an urban context, and reflects on the history of the “suburb” in ancient life. As more people became residents of the city proper, the area was dense and crowded with both people and the diseases they spread. This led to the new innovation of escapism, as members of the elite class went off and developed their own properties and dwellings far out from the city center, to gain more freedom. Through this choice, the same group that first came to start the city became the exact thing they sought to destroy. Mumford described this choice as a childish one, oblivious to the inequalities and issues facing the masses while creating an illusion of a perfect way of life. The attitude that led to the creation of the suburban community unfortunately still remains prevalent today. When a problem presents itself, instead of investing the necessary resources and time to fix the issue brought forth by everyone, those that can afford to escape do, and those that are unable to are left to suffer. Urban technologists of the future cannot fall into this trap, despite our current socio-economic system promoting it. Urban technology has the potential to vastly improve life for everyone, but in order to do this, careful analysis of the purpose of the technology, and who it is benefitting is required.
Design Expanded
Simple decisions around a device or service’s implementation and user experience can have a large impact on how the technology is utilized and what user groups have access. A core pillar of the Urban Technology program is studying urban design, and how human systems can shape urban experiences through choices in operational, graphic and physical design. If you’re like me, you may think the concept of “design” encompasses basic, more “artistic” things like graphical layouts, color palates, fabric choice, etc… but urban design and design for the built environment can lead to the production of different outcomes and experiences for a wide variety of different users. This kind of “design thinking” is how we can define the purpose of new developments, technologies and systems of governance. Thoughtful, culturally relevant design can lead to prosperous outcomes when deploying new tech within cities.
I’m not going to pretend like I’m an expert in this field, I just admitted that initially I understood design as essentially adult coloring pages, but after my brief introduction to the broader concept this past year, I’m excited to explore the relationship between design, public policy, social justice, psychology, philosophy and other disciplines. In UT 103, “The Incomplete City, our class began basic analysis of the differences of various urban amenities, including benches, signs and information kiosks, mobility systems, and more. These comparisons unlocked many new questions regarding equity, accessibility, and intention in how things are put into use.
My Current Interests Within UT
As one could probably infer by the topics I chose to focus on in this piece, my main interest in urban technology is the policy and regulation surrounding digital experiences in urban and everyday life. Specifically, social and environmental justice are at front of mind, as those already forced to be most vulnerable are yet again open to extreme consequences if certain technologies run free as they please within cities and governance. I am interested in policing and surveillance governance/reform within cities, and am curious to explore the carceral system in more depth to understand its rich history and widespread effects on minority populations within cities.
I am also interested in climate mitigation technology, specifically around natural disaster prediction, management and analysis. Being a Southern California resident, wildfires are an all too common occurrence, with only increasing risks as our economy exceeds planetary boundaries. Attempting to better understand these natural phenomena is intriguing, but attempting to better equip the public with safety information and data seems like a good UT challenge.
Typical urbanist topics are always of interest to me including housing justice, mobility and accessibility systems, zoning reform, regional planning, and more. How these topics all tie together, and how these topics can be advanced forward using tech seems like a possible route for me later on.
Summary
The urban technology program at the University of Michigan is aimed to study the digitization of cities, and the various different aspects of that concept. From technical feasibility, to equity, there is far more to the concept than just traffic lights. One can hope that in our ever increasing reliance on technology for everyday tasks and processes, our institutions of government, economies and communities will think deeper around the technology present in each. UT students are here to ensure those ideas are thought of in time, before things get too out of hand in a technological urban future.
Thanks for reading. This is my first ever blog post! I am aiming to post a piece every month on topics relating to urban planning/technology, transportation, public policy, socio-economics, and more. I hope you’ll follow along for more.
Feedback on my writing is always welcomed and appreciated. You can reach me through the social accounts linked in the bottom of the side-bar.