Search Results (10)

As AI systems increasingly structure educational processes, they shape not only what is learned, but also how epistemic authority is distributed and whose knowledge is recognized. This article explores the normative and technopolitical implications of this development by examining two prominent paradigms in AI ethics: Ethical AI and Responsible AI. Although often treated as synonymous, these frameworks reflect distinct tensions between formal universalism and contextual responsiveness, between rule-based evaluation and governance-oriented design. Drawing on deontology, utilitarianism, responsibility ethics, contract theory, and the capability approach, the article analyzes the frictions that emerge when these frameworks are applied to algorithmically mediated education. The argument situates these tensions within broader philosophical debates on technological mediation, normative infrastructures, and the ethics of sociotechnical design. Through empirical examples such as algorithmic grading and AI-mediated admissions, the article shows how predictive systems embed values into optimization routines, thereby reshaping educational space and interpretive agency. In response, it develops the concept of situated ethics, emphasizing epistemic justice, learner autonomy, and democratic judgment as central criteria for evaluating educational AI. To clarify what is at stake, the article distinguishes adaptive learning optimization from education as a process of subject formation and democratic teaching objectives. Rather than viewing AI as an external tool, the article conceptualizes it as a co-constitutive actor within pedagogical practice. Ethical reflection must therefore be integrated into design, implementation, and institutional contexts from the outset. Accordingly, the article offers (1) a conceptual map of ethical paradigms, (2) a criteria-based evaluative lens, and (3) a practice-oriented diagnostic framework to guide situated ethics in educational AI. The paper ultimately argues for an approach that attends to the relational, political, and epistemic dimensions of AI systems in education. Full article

Governments in many countries worldwide are pursuing determined policies of science, technology, and infrastructure modernization. By examining the closure of the Fujiapo Coach Bus Station in Wuhan, China, this study sheds light on the socio-cultural effects of large-scale infrastructure decommissioning caused by modernization. A qualitative analysis of 26,163 comments from the internet platform Douyin, as well as 26 interviews, is used to deeply understand interpretative contests contained in respondents’ narratives about the decommissioned infrastructure and suggest an extended application of Bijker’s interpretive flexibility framework of social construction of technology (SCOT) as an analytical framework. By theorizing infrastructure transitional disconnectivity as a dynamic catalyst that reactivates interpretive contests through the three dimensions of temporal compression, memory capitalization, and power reconfiguration, this research demonstrates how experiences of infrastructure disconnectivity events expand the interpretive flexibility’s closure assumption, drawing implications about the necessity of socio-cultural considerations for balanced strategies when navigating infrastructure transitions. Full article

As generative AI (GenAI) technologies proliferate, ensuring trust and transparency in digital ecosystems becomes increasingly critical, particularly within democratic frameworks. This article examines decentralized Web3 mechanisms—blockchain, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and data cooperatives—as foundational tools for enhancing trust in GenAI. These mechanisms are analyzed within the framework of the EU’s AI Act and the Draghi Report, focusing on their potential to support content authenticity, community-driven verification, and data sovereignty. Based on a systematic policy analysis, this article proposes a multi-layered framework to mitigate the risks of AI-generated misinformation. Specifically, as a result of this analysis, it identifies and evaluates seven detection techniques of trust stemming from the action research conducted in the Horizon Europe Lighthouse project called ENFIELD: (i) federated learning for decentralized AI detection, (ii) blockchain-based provenance tracking, (iii) zero-knowledge proofs for content authentication, (iv) DAOs for crowdsourced verification, (v) AI-powered digital watermarking, (vi) explainable AI (XAI) for content detection, and (vii) privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML). By leveraging these approaches, the framework strengthens AI governance through peer-to-peer (P2P) structures while addressing the socio-political challenges of AI-driven misinformation. Ultimately, this research contributes to the development of resilient democratic systems in an era of increasing technopolitical polarization. Full article

New data-driven technologies in global cities have yielded potential but also have intensified techno-political concerns. Consequently, in recent years, several declarations/manifestos have emerged across the world claiming to protect citizens’ digital rights. In 2018, Barcelona, Amsterdam, and NYC city councils formed the Cities’ Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR), an international alliance of global People-Centered Smart Cities—currently encompassing 49 cities worldwide—to promote citizens’ digital rights on a global scale. People-centered smart cities programme is the strategic flagship programme by UN-Habitat that explicitly advocates the CCDR as an institutionally innovative and strategic city-network to attain policy experimentation and sustainable urban development. Against this backdrop and being inspired by the popular quote by Hannah Arendt on “the right to have rights”, this article aims to explore what “digital rights” may currently mean within a sample consisting of 13 CCDR global people-centered smart cities: Barcelona, Amsterdam, NYC, Long Beach, Toronto, Porto, London, Vienna, Milan, Los Angeles, Portland, San Antonio, and Glasgow. Particularly, this article examines the (i) understanding and the (ii) prioritisation of digital rights in 13 cities through a semi-structured questionnaire by gathering 13 CCDR city representatives/strategists’ responses. These preliminary findings reveal not only distinct strategies but also common policy patterns. Full article

Against the widespread assumption that data are the oil of the 21st century, this article offers an alternative conceptual framework, interpretation, and pathway around data and smart city nexus to subvert surveillance capitalism in light of emerging and further promising practical cases. This article illustrates an open debate in data governance and the data justice field related to current trends and challenges in smart cities, resulting in a new approach advocated for and recently coined by the UN-Habitat programme ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’. Particularly, this feature article sheds light on two intertwined notions that articulate the technopolitical dimension of the ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: data co-operatives and data sovereignty. Data co-operatives are emerging as a way to share and own data through peer-to-peer (p2p) repositories and data sovereignty is being claimed as a digital right for communities/citizens. Consequently, this feature article aims to open up new research avenues around ‘People-Centred Smart Cities’ approach: First, it elucidates how data co-operatives through data sovereignty could be articulated as long as co-developed with communities connected to the long history and analysis of the various forms of co-operatives (technopolitical dimension). Second, it prospectively anticipates the city–regional dimension encompassing data colonialism and data devolution. Full article

Water sharing within the states/provinces of a country and cross-border is unavoidable. Conflicts between the sharing entities might turn more severe due to additional dependency on water, growing population, and reduced availability as a result of climate change at many locations. Pakistan, being an agricultural country, is severely water stressed and heading toward a worsening situation in the near future. Pakistan is heading toward water scarcity as water availability in the Indus basin is becoming critical. Being a downstream riparian of India and Afghanistan in the Indus basin, water availability depends on the releases of water from both countries. The Indus Water Treaty is governing the water distribution rights between India and Pakistan. However, there exists no proper agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the construction of new dams on the Kabul River is another threat to water availability to Pakistan. Correct implementation of the Indus Water Treaty with India is required, together with an effective agreement with Afghanistan about the water sharing. In addition to water shortage, poor management of water resources, inequitable sharing of water, lack of a systematic approach, old-fashioned irrigation practices, and growing agricultural products with large water footprints are all exacerbating the problem. The water shortage is now increasingly countered by the use of groundwater. This sudden high extraction of groundwater is causing depletion of the groundwater table and groundwater quality issues. This water shortage is exacerbating the provincial conflicts over water, such as those between Punjab and Sindh provinces. At one end, a uniform nationwide water allocation policy is required. At the same time, modern irrigation techniques and low-water-footprint agricultural products should be promoted. A fair water-pricing mechanism of surface water and groundwater could be an effective measure, whereas a strict policy on groundwater usage is equally important. Political will and determination to address the water issues are required. The solutions must be based on transparency and equity, by using engineering approaches, combined with comprehensive social support. To develop a comprehensive water strategy, a dedicated technopolitical institute to strengthen the capabilities of nationwide expertise and address the issues on a regular basis is required to overcome the complex and multidimensional water-related problems of the country. Full article

Mega-dams are commonly designed, constructed, and implemented under governors’ rule and technocrats’ knowledge. Such hydraulic infrastructures are characteristically presented as if based on monolithic technical consensus and unidirectional engineering. However, those who are affected by these water interventions, and eventually governed by the changes brought by them, often dispute the forms of knowledge, norms, morals, and operation and use rules embedded in mega-hydraulic engineers’ designs. Protests may also deeply influence the design and development of the technological artifacts. By using approaches related to the Social Construction of Technology and Partha Chatterjee’s politics of the governed, this article shows (i) how protests against the Baba dam in coastal Ecuador greatly influenced the dam’s designs, protecting communities’ lands from being flooded; and (ii) how, at the same time, techno-political decision-makers deployed hydraulic design as a dividing rule, turning potentially affected communities against each other. We conclude that megadam designs are shaped by the power interplay among governors and governed, with the latter being internally differentiated. By critically analyzing the role of technology development—materializing changing ‘political context and relationships’—we show how contested and adapted dam design may favor some stakeholders while simultaneously affecting others and weakening united dam-resistance movements. Full article

Against the backdrop of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) taking effect in the European Union (EU), a debate emerged about the role of citizens and their relationship with data. European city authorities claim that (smart) citizens are as important to a successful smart city program as data and technology are, and that those citizens must be convinced of the benefits and security of such initiatives. This paper examines how the city of Barcelona is marking a transition from the conventional, hegemonic smart city approach to a new paradigm—the experimental city. Through (i) a literature review, (ii) carrying out twenty in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, and (iii) actively participating in three symposiums in Barcelona from September 2017 to March 2018, this paper elucidates how (smart) citizens are increasingly considered decision-makers rather than data providers. This paper considers (i) the implications of the technopolitics of data ownership and, as a result, (ii) the ongoing implementation of the Digital Plan 2017–2020, its three experimental strategies, and the related seven strategic initiatives. This paper concludes that, from the policy perspective, smartness may not be appealing in Barcelona, although the experimental approach has yet to be entirely established as a paradigm. Full article

To date the concept of the bioeconomy—an economy based primarily on biogenic instead of fossil resources—has largely been associated with visions of “green growth” and the advancement of biotechnology and has been framed from within an industrial perspective. However, there is no consensus as to what a bioeconomy should effectively look like, and what type of society it would sustain. In this paper, we identify different types of narratives constructed around this concept and carve out the techno-political implications they convey. We map these narratives on a two-dimensional option space, which allows for a rough classification of narratives and their related imaginaries into four paradigmatic quadrants. We draw the narratives from three different sources: (i) policy documents of national and supra-national authorities; (ii) stakeholder interviews; and (iii) scenarios built in a biophysical modelling exercise. Our analysis shows that there is a considerable gap between official policy papers and visions supported by stakeholders. At least in the case of Austria there is also a gap between the official strategies and the option space identified through biophysical modelling. These gaps testify to the highly political nature of the concept of the bioeconomy and the diverging visions of society arising from it. Full article

This paper explores the substantial effect that the critical understanding and techno-political consideration of data are having in some smart city strategies. Particularly, the paper presents some results of a comparative study of four cases of smart city transitions: Glasgow, Bristol, Barcelona, and Bilbao. Likewise, considering how relevant the city-regional path-dependency is in each territorial context, the paper will elucidate the notion of smart devolution as a key governance component that is enabling some cities to formulate their own smart city-regional governance policies and implement them by considering the role of the smart citizens as decision makers rather than mere data providers. The paper concludes by identifying an implicit smart city-regional governance strategy for each case based on the techno-politics of data and smart devolution. Full article