Urban Planning in the Digital Age

Technological changes have often produced important social changes that translate into spatial and planning practice. Whereas the intelligent city is one of the unavoidable and even dominant concepts, digital uses can influence urban planning in four different directions. These scenarios are represented by a compass composed of a horizontal axis opposing institutional and non-institutional actors, and a second axis with open and closed opposition.

Foreword ix

Introduction xi

Acknowledgments xxiii

Chapter 1. Algorithmic Urban Planning: The Return of Experts 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2. From technological breakthroughs to urban planning transformations 2

1.3. What is the genesis of the smart city? 14

1.4. The return of rational planning under a smart veneer 28

1.5. Conclusion 35

Chapter 2. Uberized Urban Planning: Extension of the Area of Urban Capitalism 37

2.1. Introduction 37

2.2. A new stage in the privatization of cities: from the enhancement of large groups to uberization 38

2.3. Territorial effects on the ability of public actors to develop and manage the city 53

2.4. No longer planning against but with the sharing economy? 58

2.5. Renewal of strategic planning under an innovative veneer 60

2.6. Conclusion 65

Chapter 3. A Wiki-Urban Planning: Searching for an Alternative City 67

3.1. Introduction 67

3.2. New digital resources for non-governmental actors 68

3.3. Civic mobilizations 2.0 for spatial planning 79

3.4. The renewal of communicative planning under a veneer 2.0 96

3.5. Conclusion 103

Chapter 4. Open-Source Urban Planning: The Renewal of Planning Institutional Practices 105

4.1. Introduction 105

4.2. Introduction of planning processes 106

4.3. The challenge of defining and testing the sociotechnical devices of online participation: the case of Paris 117

4.4. New tools to make the collaborative milestone of planning effective? 137

4.5. Conclusion 143

Conclusion 145

Bibliography 153

Index 173

Nicolas Douay is a senior lecturer in urban planning at Paris Diderot University and a researcher with UMR Géographie-Cités in France. His research focuses on the process of metropolization, particularly in terms of urban policies, territorial planning processes and digital uses.