Equitable Smart Cities

1. Equitable Smart Cities
Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy
2022 | MENA Digital School @ CAIS

2. Melvin Kranzberg was an American historian,
and professor of history at Case Western
Reserve University from 1952 until 1971. He
was a Callaway professor of the history of
technology at Georgia Tech from 1972 to 1988

3. 3
“What lies beneath the water [of smart city’s
development] lies an immense quantity of data,
predictive algorithms and powerful analytics that drive
our cities to be more than just bricks and mortar.”
“Technology should be about creating equity and
justice, and using data to gain a clear understanding of
how our cities function for all citizens — rich and poor,”
Tan Yigitcanlar
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, Queensland
University of Technology
Source: https://medium.com/thelabs/smart-cities-are-the-future-of-resilient-equitable-societies-76115df1db46
But is it the case?

4. 4
Smart Cities to
operate need Data

5. 5
Smart Cities to
operate need Data
But the current ways in which data
is collected is questionable
Why?

6. Why?
● Politics of urban data

7. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=bWOUw8omUVg
Why?
● Politics of urban data
● Algorithm Bais

8. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/facial-recognition-software.html
Why?
● Politics of urban data
● Algorithm Bais

9. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/facial-recognition-software.html
Why?
● Politics of urban data
● Algorithm Bais
https://time.com/5520558/artificial-
intelligence-racial-gender-bias/

10. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/facial-recognition-software.html
Why?
● Politics of urban data
● Algorithm Bais
● Techno-centric and male
dominated industry
According to Sangiuliano (2014), smart cities are generally not
attentive to gender inequalities and, as Rose (2016) has pointed out,
smart city conferences – both academic and professional- are
dominated by men

11. Some efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities
More info: https://monoskop.org/images/d/d9/D_Ignazio_Catherine_Klein_Lauren_F_Data_Feminism_2020.pdf and Link
“provides a framework for
data scientists seeking to
learn how feminism can
help them work toward
justice, and for feminists
who want to focus their
efforts on the growing field
of data science”
“The authors apply an
intersectional feminist
framework to data science.

12. Some efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities
Source: https://www.akademie-solitude.de/en/web-residencies/building-a-feminist-data-set-for-a-feminist-ai/

13. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/technology/facial-recognition-software.html
Some personal efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities

14. Source: Cairo Charter (still not published)
Some personal efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities
The Cairo Charter : Urban AI in Africa for Social & Environmental Justice
- Builds off of the idea of Athens Charter
- Develops a series of principles / protocols for Ecological & Social Justice-driven AI
- Articulates course of Urban AI for Cairo
1. Urban AI can and should be a tool for environmental and social justice, and technological transformations
provide a unique opportunity for constructing equitable and sustainable cities.
2. Urban AI is used not just as a tool, but also as a rationale for planning and implementing spatial justice,
data justice, and social justice.
3. Understand how AI ecosystems shape social and ecological development and to be inclusive and habitable

15. Some personal efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3xa2IrEkLQ

16. Thought
Experiment:
centering non-
human actors in
the Planning of
Smart East
Jerusalem
Some personal efforts towards Equitable Smart Cities
Source: Hendawy et al (still unpublished)

17. Discussion

18. Thank you!
Dr. Mennatullah Hendawy
Sep 2022 | MENA Digital School @ CAIS