Website : http://realsms.eu/
About
ReaLsMs (Real Smart Cities) is a 3 year Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action funded research project conducted under the auspices of RISE (Research and Innovation Staff Exchange). The overarching objective of the ReaLsMS is to develop and implement a critical perspective on the Smart City and Smart City discourses through critical humanities research and innovation.
ReaLsMs notes that our relationship to the city has changed radically with the development of the Smart City and Data City technologies. The use of digital technology in the management of urban life is being celebrated through its potential for enhancement. Underpinning ReaLsMs’ mission, however, is the recognition that it is necessary to retain a space for critical engagement in conjunction with the incorporation of technological developments, especially as Smart Cities are transforming the rights and responsibilities of urban inhabitants.
Our research will be achieved through the collaboration of academic and non-academic partners based across Europe and Ecuador, and facilitated through an extensive series of secondments of established and early stage researchers between partner organisations.
The joint research fields of ReaLsMs will be the development of historical and philosophical underpinnings of the Data City and the implementation of the Smart City within local governance structures. Taking a transdisciplinary approach, the key to this Research Exchange is developing new modes of participation for citizens in the Smart City while providing opportunities for engagement through the illumination of technological infrastructures.
Aims
ReaLsMs aims to:
- Explore how the digital technologies of the Data City are impacting the epistemological construction of the City (for example Dashboard technologies) and its effect upon the aesthetics of the built environment (Urban Design) through collaborative international research.
- Equip participants with the skills and knowledge to engage with citizens in order to progress participatory governance of the Smart City.
- Strengthen collaborative research between different countries, sectors and disciplines achieved through secondments and networking events.
- Support action-based research through artistic practice and contributive research methodologies.
- Promote knowledge transfer and the inter-disciplinary development of expertise of participants through secondments, training and network events.
Outcomes
Expected outcomes of ReaLsMs are:
- New episteme of the city
- New method for handling data collected through Smart City infrastructure
- New means of citizen engagement by demystifying “black box” surrounding Smart City technology and increasing citizen expertise
- Prototype for Real Smart City through development of software and public fora
- Professional completed socially engaged artistic works for presentation in Dublin, Durham, Greater Paris and Ecuador.
Each Work Package will also result in deliverables, crystallising research into tangible outputs. Please see the Work Packages section for more information.