(En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices

The tech-entrepreneurial model behind the computation of urban processes is (re) producing what has already been identified as a technocratic, solutionist, and commodifying model of urban planning. Within this model, not only is care no longer a prerequisite for urban production, but decades of smar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Niloufar Vadiati, Letizia Chiappini, Martin Bangratz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Digital Geography and Society
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378325000091
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849724669766139904
author Niloufar Vadiati
Letizia Chiappini
Martin Bangratz
author_facet Niloufar Vadiati
Letizia Chiappini
Martin Bangratz
author_sort Niloufar Vadiati
collection DOAJ
description The tech-entrepreneurial model behind the computation of urban processes is (re) producing what has already been identified as a technocratic, solutionist, and commodifying model of urban planning. Within this model, not only is care no longer a prerequisite for urban production, but decades of smartification and platformization have been diminishing the spaces, infrastructures, and socio-economic relations that were co-produced to enable care.Through the lens of feminist geography, care is examined as a multidimensional concept encompassing socio-spatial dynamics, power relations, and ethical urban practices. Using empirical data from three research projects, the study showcases alternative digital urbanism practices, categorized into three vignettes: refusal, commoning, and reappropriation. These categories are illustrated with cases such as grassroots food cooperatives, feminist hack-spaces, digital sovereignty initiatives, platform-based welfare experiments and civil society initiatives such as Code for Germany.By situating care within the spatial and social fabric of urban life, the paper argues for its potential as a politic, practice, and epistemology that challenges the exploitative logic of contemporary digital infrastructures. The findings reveal the embeddedness of care practices within local contexts, highlighting the dual need for trans-local networks and territorial embeddedness. This study contributes to the discourse on caring digital urbanism, advancing a feminist theorisation of everyday digital urbanism.
format Article
id doaj-art-9eb153901b034da8b5e30a9f10dbb94a
institution DOAJ
issn 2666-3783
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Digital Geography and Society
spelling doaj-art-9eb153901b034da8b5e30a9f10dbb94a2025-08-20T03:10:41ZengElsevierDigital Geography and Society2666-37832025-06-01810012010.1016/j.diggeo.2025.100120(En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practicesNiloufar Vadiati0Letizia Chiappini1Martin Bangratz2HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany; Corresponding author.University of Twente, the NetherlandsRWTH University, GermanyThe tech-entrepreneurial model behind the computation of urban processes is (re) producing what has already been identified as a technocratic, solutionist, and commodifying model of urban planning. Within this model, not only is care no longer a prerequisite for urban production, but decades of smartification and platformization have been diminishing the spaces, infrastructures, and socio-economic relations that were co-produced to enable care.Through the lens of feminist geography, care is examined as a multidimensional concept encompassing socio-spatial dynamics, power relations, and ethical urban practices. Using empirical data from three research projects, the study showcases alternative digital urbanism practices, categorized into three vignettes: refusal, commoning, and reappropriation. These categories are illustrated with cases such as grassroots food cooperatives, feminist hack-spaces, digital sovereignty initiatives, platform-based welfare experiments and civil society initiatives such as Code for Germany.By situating care within the spatial and social fabric of urban life, the paper argues for its potential as a politic, practice, and epistemology that challenges the exploitative logic of contemporary digital infrastructures. The findings reveal the embeddedness of care practices within local contexts, highlighting the dual need for trans-local networks and territorial embeddedness. This study contributes to the discourse on caring digital urbanism, advancing a feminist theorisation of everyday digital urbanism.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378325000091CareDigital urbanismRefusingCommoningReappropriating
spellingShingle Niloufar Vadiati
Letizia Chiappini
Martin Bangratz
(En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
Digital Geography and Society
Care
Digital urbanism
Refusing
Commoning
Reappropriating
title (En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
title_full (En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
title_fullStr (En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
title_full_unstemmed (En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
title_short (En) coding care into digital urbanism: Vignettes of collective practices
title_sort en coding care into digital urbanism vignettes of collective practices
topic Care
Digital urbanism
Refusing
Commoning
Reappropriating
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666378325000091
work_keys_str_mv AT niloufarvadiati encodingcareintodigitalurbanismvignettesofcollectivepractices
AT letiziachiappini encodingcareintodigitalurbanismvignettesofcollectivepractices
AT martinbangratz encodingcareintodigitalurbanismvignettesofcollectivepractices