“Governing the urban commons”: DLT, institutions, and citizens in perspective

Borrowing from insights produced in urban planning, media and governance studies thereby leveraging the Ostrom-nian ideas of institutions and polycentricity, this paper examines how to govern commons in the smart city. It offers a reflection upon whether Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) could...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inBig data & society Vol. 10; no. 1
Main Authors Nguyen Long, Le Anh, Graaf, Shenja van der, Votsis, Athanasios
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2023
Sage Publications Ltd
SAGE Publishing
Subjects
Automation
Common lands
Distributed ledger
Governance
Institutions
Integrity
Mass media effects
Smart cities
Technology
Urban areas
Urban planning
common value
hybrid commons
commoning
digital ledger technologies
hybrid space
modes of production
right to the city
urban commons
spatiotemporal integrity
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Summary:Borrowing from insights produced in urban planning, media and governance studies thereby leveraging the Ostrom-nian ideas of institutions and polycentricity, this paper examines how to govern commons in the smart city. It offers a reflection upon whether Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) could be a key notion for the commons discourse which centers around stakeholders, self-organization, and a rights-based framework. By decentralizing ledgers and enabling the interoperability of the various interfaces, DLTs make records more accessible, exchanges more transparent, and reduce costs while increasing efficiency, and permit automation, therefore commoning interactions both offline and online are facilitated. We argue that the use of DLTs to preserve the spatiotemporal integrity of key urban spaces is a common value question that needs to be elucidated or renegotiated in order to provide any useful guidance to DLTs integrity-preserving potential. In doing so, we draw attention to DLT-based urban commons and urban governance, and point to inherent incompatibilities that may lead to radical and not-so-smooth changes in urban institutions, while providing a way of thinking which can move the smart city closer towards a values-centered process and away from a preoccupation with technology and efficiency.
ISSN:2053-9517
2053-9517
DOI:10.1177/20539517231182391