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Platform Urbanism and Smart Cities

Technology can be extremely useful in solving challenges faced in the city, and is adopted by many cities to better the lives of citizens. Smart cities help people to improve their quality of life using “informational and communication technologies (ICTs)  increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve both the quality of government service” (Shea & Burns, 2020). 

A key driver of society is the rise of various platforms supporting daily functions and services like food, transportation and shopping. Platforms like Grab provide food and grocery delivery, private hire vehicles for transportation for the convenience of users.Such platforms give rise to platform, which is the integration of digital platforms into the materiality of the city, as stated by Barns (2020). The convenience that these platforms provide allow them to take over certain functions in the city, making platform services crucial to the everyday operation of cities. This was also perpetuated during Covid-19, which brought about urgent needs for technology to facilitate remote interactions to allow a city to continue to function.

While this has the potential for good outcomes such as the creation of more inclusive and sustainable cities through improving accessibility, it also raises important questions like privacy and cybersecurity concerns. 

Singapore is ranked as the top Asian city in the Smart City index, and is making a contentious effort to involve technology in solving the city’s problems through the Smart Nation initiative. During Covid-19, Singapore employed the use of technology for contact tracing purposes using an app called TraceTogether. This app could track if users vaccination statuses and if someone was in close proximity to those who had contracted the disease and would notify users. It was also used for entry into public spaces like malls and shops so as to track each individual’s ‘footsteps’. 

In a chaotic world with a disease that was relatively unknown to mankind, technology like contact tracing can feel like a godsent solution to help a society stay safe and still function as close to normal as possible. The success of this can be seen in the relatively low number of community cases when restrictions were slowly being eased. However, a significant concern to privacy arrived when the police declared that they were using the information from the TraceTogether app to track a criminal’s whereabouts, when the public was previously assured that information collected on the app would strictly be used for contact tracing purposes only. 

Thus, this brings us to the issue of how much autonomy can we exercise when platform services become so ingrained into the way of life that one’s choice will either be to use these platforms or not participate in society.

References

Shea, S., & Burns, E. (2020). smart city. IoT Agenda; TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/iotagenda/definition/smart-city#:~:text=A%20smart%20city%20is%20a,government%20services%20and%20citizen%20welfare.

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Impact of Tourism on the Rhythm of the City

In the recent decade, K-pop has gained global recognition and has become one of the most popular music genres in the world. Other than K-pop, Korean media like dramas and movies have also become a significant pull factor for tourism in Korea. Social media has played a crucial role in the popularisation of Korean media, providing a platform for idols and fans to interact and share content. While stronger tourism could mean great things for a city (i.e. economic revenue and cultural preservation), cities are often underprepared for long-term negative impacts of the tourism like gentrification and alterations to the rhythm of the city. 

Jane Jacobs posits that we can see cities as biological systems, and external effects like a rise in tourism can cause changes to the rhythm and functions of a city. This suggests looking at different components of a city and examining how they interact with each other, like how infrastructure or public services impact people’s way of life. Tourism can influence the rhythm of a city negatively when infrastructure and culture has been altered to cater to increased footfall due to tourism. According to Ash Amin, he argues that the rhythm of urban space can play a role in shaping social norms and values. Changes to the rhythm of the city could affect the sense of community and social cohesion of a space.

In the case of South Korea, the restoration of the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul was an excellent strategy in the revitalisation of the area in the Seoul city centre. The restoration project successfully provided a public space in the hustling city centre where citizens were able to gather and interact. What was originally a highway filled with cars has now become a community space where citizens were given the liberty to engage in their own activities. 

While the rhythm of the city slowed down and provided a more liveable experience for communities, the gentrification of Cheonggyecheon led it to become a tourist destination, with tourists making up most of the traffic to the area. Thus, the sense of community and social cohesion amongst the locals were greatly impacted. Even if there was a new space, the culture and the make-up of the people visiting the space also affects citizens’ lives and experiences of the city.

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Building Authenticity in Reclaimed Spaces

Anyone who has been to Hong Kong can tell you how the city is densely packed on hilly terrains, with a mix of urban and colonial architecture. In a recent visit to Hong Kong, I found myself intrigued by how their architecture seems to be put together in a somewhat ‘haphazard’ manner, with what seems like a ‘chaotic’ messiness. However, there also seems to be a method to the madness, and I argue that the messy urbanism style of Hong Kong’s urban planning contributes to its charm of the city and its authenticity as a place. 

It is common to develop mental images or impressions of a city and its culture, especially based on media portrayals from movies or from images of the city shared on the Internet. We assign unique identities to remember certain places, such as associating Singapore with food or Paris as the city of love. Given the increasing homogenisation of cities’ urban planning, efforts to stand out are important in differentiating and retaining a city’s authenticity.

Zukins posits that the idea of ‘authenticity’ is a “continuous process of living and working”. Rather than viewing authenticity in its traditional sense as retaining the origin or history of a place, it can be seen as a “gradual buildup of everyday experience”. Establishing a sense of rhythm and making spaces familiar to its people and neighbours supports them in retaining a true sense of place. 

In the case of Hong Kong, an example of preserving authenticity in the city can be seen in the example of the adaptive reuse of the former Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy, and the VIctorian Prison into a cultural site named the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Art. This can be seen as a form of authenticity in reclaiming their land and space, by acknowledging their colonial history but reusing the place to build an area of familiarity among its people.  

Tai Kwun is a mix of heritage sites where people could learn the history of the former place, but also regularly hosts art exhibitions. Its unique architecture coupled with a rare courtyard space in the midst of a densely packed busy city provides space for gathering. Through such projects, people are able to develop new relationships with these spaces beyond its origins and history, creating an authentic experience for the people in Hong Kong.