Challenges of the ‘Urban Digital’: Addressing Interdisciplinarity and Power in the Planning and Design of the Digital City

Abstract

This paper identifies and discusses a set of challenges relating to the design of digital services in policies and strategies for more liveable and sustainable cities. These challenges emerge in the meeting between the knowledge and practice fields of digital design, which deal with service and interaction design, and urbanism, which is concerned with the study, planning and design of cities. The purpose of this paper is to lay the ground for a more inclusive and cross-disciplinary perspective on the conceptualisation, planning and realisation of the ‘urban digital’. This relates to how design and urban planning professionals learn to take seriously the societal responsibility implied in the development of digital services and products for everyday urban living.