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In this chapter, we discuss the role of cultural institutions in the co-creation of narrative constructs that help citizens shaping the future of cities, and how the smart city rhetoric informs and influences the co-creation of such narratives in institutions such as museums. We examine the specific case of 100% Brisbane, an interactive exhibition in the Museum of Brisbane, Australia, that facilitates audiences to imagine the future city by engaging with smart-like features. We present the notion of urban imaginaries as a useful narrative construct that facilitates, on the one hand, citizen future visions of the city with the potential of enriching governance and planning practices, and, on the other hand, the identification of some shortcomings associated to the conventional smart cities discourses. The discussion examines the exhibition’s link with big data analytics, as well as the opportunities and limitations for citizens to imagine and co-create a more diverse and plural city.

In cities, when combined with ubiquitous mobile media and location-based services, algorithmic culture has been seen to exacerbate the problem of software-sorted geographies, that is, a conjunction of code and space that algorithmically "orchestrates inequalities through technological systems embedded within urban environments" (Graham, 2005, p. 562). The mediated geographies served to us via locative devices and urban media might, for instance, show us only the city an algorithm assumes we want to see. This chapter examines some of the touch points between the software-sorted city and its citizens, looking at both sides: On the one hand, algorithmic curation and selection render automated variations of the city. On the other hand, there are opportunities to explore, tinkering with algorithmic culture to bring about a diversity dividend and increased innovation capacity in cities. In order to do so, cities must provide appropriate interfaces. Such urban computing, urban informatics and urban media interfaces include location-based applications on mobile phones used in the city as well as urban screens, public displays and forms of media architecture, such as interactive media façades and installations. The chapter is structured in three parts. It first offers a critical review of the relationship between the internet and the city and in doing so, it outlines the basic premises of big data analytics and algorithms in the context of urban informatics that have given rise to the new field of urban science. It then turns to the socio-cultural implications and issues arising from algorithmic culture. In the third section, we discuss urban imaginaries and novel ways that some of the software tools underpinning algorithmic culture in the here and now can also give rise to new practices of imagining the future city.

This study investigates how digital technologies enable citizens to challenge dominant practices of urban decision-making by helping them experience, imagine and shape the city. Developed through three case studies, the research presents an ethnographic exploration of the social, spatial and technological interactions of ordinary citizens, grassroots organisations, and cultural institutions in Brisbane, Australia. This project revisits the concept of citizenship and contributes towards the establishment of alternative principles for community engagement and political participation.

Urban activist groups challenge the status quo in city governance and demand their ‘right to the city’ as city co-producers. The specific forms in which such movements engage, plan and activate different participation mechanisms to contest local dominant power structures and governance practices are, as yet, not well understood. Scholarship on the topic has mostly gravitated around the structural influence of private corporations and governments, as well as their role in the global urban crisis as the rationale for socio-economic interventions in urban governance. Yet, the dominant belief remains for local governments to retain sole control of city futures. The aim of this study is to examine citizen demands for new dynamics of engagement and participation in decision-making mechanisms that co-produce the city. We present Right to the City – Brisbane as a case study activist organisation aligned to these citizen-led demands for more agency in local governance. An ethnographic approach involving participant observations, in-depth interviews and analysis of social media and printed media identified the urban imaginaries produced by Right to the City – Brisbane. The objective was to understand how group members construct a narrative of their struggles against exclusion practiced by government agencies and private developers, as well as of their visions and desires for shaping the future of Brisbane. We found that this activist group engages with the city and residents through playful practices, envisions a fair and sustainable city, and crafts a future of Brisbane privileging a DIY activist approach. This study concludes that a citizen-led peer-produced urbanism, based on methodologies that relate directly to citizen needs and desires, constitutes a valuable contribution for expanding and reshaping urban governance policies and practices in modern cities.

This paper presents a critical reflection on insights into the ongoing endeavours for community engagement by Ayara and MAL; two urban grassroots organisations in Bogota, Colombia, where a long history of internal conflicts has resulted in diverse human rights violations. The paper presents examples of the grassroots organisations’ unique methods of engagement that promotes building collective intelligence from the bottom-up through creative collaboration and design processes, leading to rebuilding social fabrics that support the common good for the people of Bogota.

Large-scale political or cultural events in urban environments disrupt and challenge city residents in making informed decisions to navigate through restricted zones. However, little research exists that examines how residents successfully overcome the mobility turmoils created by such events. Studies into collective intelligence found socio-technical efforts that can assist citizens in dealing with challenging situations in urban environments. Yet, studies into other forms of collective and network sociality and how those forms are interwoven with the social construction of urban space, are rare. In this paper, we present data from the 2014 G20 Summit held in Brisbane, Australia, to propose that collective-informed decisions made by urban residents in disrupted environments are influenced by particular communication patterns and information access, as well as the production and reproduction of urban imaginaries. An urban exploration as the G20 event unfolded, followed by audio-recorded focus groups, was conducted with 14 participants who mapped their walks through the city using a mobile app and captured images of different locations along their paths. The analysis of this data contributes towards a deeper understanding of collective intelligence strategies for citizens interacting with urban space, and gives rise to potential strategies for enhancing socio-spatial engagement of urban residents.

As a precursor to the 2014 G20 Leaders’ Summit held in Brisbane, Australia, the Queensland Government sponsored a program of G20 Cultural Celebrations, designed to showcase the Summit’s host city. The cultural program’s signature event was the Colour Me Brisbane festival, a two-week ‘citywide interactive light and projection installations’ festival that was originally slated to run from 24 October to 9 November, but which was extended due to popular demand to conclude with the G20 Summit itself on 16 November. The Colour Me Brisbane festival comprised a series projection displays that promoted visions of the city’s past, present, and future at landmark sites and iconic buildings throughout the city’s central business district and thus transformed key buildings into forms of media architecture. In some instances the media architecture installations were interactive, allowing the public to control aspects of the projections through a computer interface situated in front of the building; however, the majority of the installations were not interactive in this sense. The festival was supported by a website that included information regarding the different visual and interactive displays and links to social media to support public discussion regarding the festival (Queensland Government 2014). Festival-goers were also encouraged to follow a walking-tour map of the projection sites that would take them on a 2.5 kilometre walk from Brisbane’s cultural precinct, through the city centre, concluding at parliament house. In this paper, we investigate the Colour Me Brisbane festival and the broader G20 Cultural Celebrations as a form of strategic placemaking—designed, on the one hand, to promote Brisbane as a safe, open, and accessible city in line with the City Council’s plan to position Brisbane as a ‘New World City’ (Brisbane City Council 2014). On the other hand, it was deployed to counteract growing local concerns and tensions over the disruptive and politicised nature of t

This article explores a number of social control strategies on individuals and families actioned by the newly created state-national project during the first decades of Colombian XIX century. With special attention on the discourse of urbanity, also named 'civility or good manners', this paper analyses literary sources produced in the time for molding citizens behaviors in order to incorporate the society into the new paradigm of Modernity.

This article presents a reflection of the application of multiculturality principles into tertiary educational programs at the University of Los Andes, Bogota Colombia. The main focus of this paper is debating the concept of 'positive discrimination' as a challenge taken by educational centres in societies with cultural diversity populations.