Supervisors info:
Stathis Arapostathis, Associate Professor (Advisor)
Stathes Hadjiefthymiades, Professor
Yannis Fotopoulos, Postdoctoral Researcher
Summary:
Science and technology change the boundaries of knowledge and have exceptionally powerful effects on society. The world is transitioning through the digitalisation era, as most of our daily activities are highly dependent on innovative digital and computer technologies. People’s needs and demands are shaped by technological advancements. Also, population growth, the economic models of the cities and the power relations between countries always create “trendy” technological improvements within cities. These technological improvements are used not only as political tools but also as marketing strategies on the part of cities. These strategies are presented as socio- technical imaginaries for future cities. This thesis focuses on the Smart City as a new way to solve the problems created by climate change and by the growing urban needs due to rapid population changes.
Science, technology & society (STS) scholars posit that the cities are perfect to study socio- technical change and its process (Hommels, 2005; 2020). Urban techno-politics helps to open the black-boxed relationships between knowledge, power, technology and politics. This study seeks to revisit the Smart City as a socio-technical imaginary with promises and perils that are defined by literature in the case of Izmir Smart Transportation system, which is one of the biggest projects in Turkey, as well as a candidate for the “citta slow metropolis” and “smart enough city” concepts.
In general, this research is focusing on the Smart City and Smart Transportation, narrowing down the scope from worldwide to national and local contexts. In particular, the goal of this case study is to explore how the socio-technical imaginaries are represented in the media and by authorities, what exactly the transition of smarting Izmir is, and whether the municipality is simply following a “trend” or if smart cities constitute a genuine public demand. Furthermore, the research aims to understand the techno-political perspective on open source data and the selected transportation applications. Lastly, the aim is to investigate users’ experiences of the smart transportation system in Izmir from their reactions via mobile applications. The research was conducted with multiple qualitative techniques such as interviews, discourse analysis of governmental and non- governmental documents, media reports and social media articles, and user feedback from mobile applications.
Keywords:
STS, Smart Transportation Management, techno-politics, socio-technical imaginaries, Co-production of Smart Technologies
