STS, smart cities, and the UNCTAD report

Reiner Grundmann

Cities as socio-technical systems

• Large technical systems (LTS)– consist of a capital-intensive infrastructure, a broad

range of technical components and technologies and a variety of actors and institutions, spanning a geographical area (Tom Hughes, B Joerges)

– Water, electricity, gas, railways, automobility, telephony…

• Cities are places of intersecting LTS• Governance and institutions (system builders?)• Technological momentum and lock-in

Themes in UNCTAD report• Urban sprawl, density, lock-in• Transport

– Low-tech solutions• Energy

– RE, smart grids, de-centralisation• Waste

– 3 Rs• Water

– Centralized governance• Regulation & planning

– Citizen participation• Peri-urbanisation

– Urban farming & gardening

The Breakthrough Institute, 2015My comment:

http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.de/2015/04/are-we-all-ecomodernists-now.html

• Precursor: Hartwell Group– A new course for climate policy (2010)

• Ecomodernist manifesto synthesizes technological optimism with deep ecology thoughts– Both hold that societies are on a trajectory to

achieving peak material production during this century, and peak population.

– Energy and services will still grow but the effects on nature will be minimized.

The task of ecomodernization:

• decouple economic and technological development from its side effects

• main issues are material flows and impacts, such as species extinction, or pollution.

• virtues of density– Energy (fossil fuels or nuclear energy)– Population (urban environments are more

beneficial for wildlife than suburban sprawl)

Specific items for discussion

• Sustainability/carbon indicators• Low/high-tech solutions (cost?)• Density and the goldilocks• De/centralisation