Open-source resilience: a connected commons-based proposition for urban transformation

In this paper we propose the concept of ‘open-source resilience’ as a promising path towards urban transformation and greater resilience. This proposition is investigated through the process of co-designing a digital platform, providing tools for actors engaging with resilience through urban commoning processes. Such tools will have the role of sustaining commoning projects and scaling them (up and wide) by facilitating processes of knowledge-sharing and networking. To illustrate the approach, we present outcomes and observations from an initial stage of the co-design process, which resulted in a first digital prototype

‘Gluing’ alternative imaginaries of sustainable urban futures:When commoning and design met in the post-socialist neighbourhood of Mănăștur, Romania

Imagination is key to transforming societal values and everyday life practices towards sustainable urban futures by allowing us to see alternatives. We propose that glimpses into other futures exist, illustrated by bottom-up practices of urban commoning. By allowing the experience of alternatives on a human scale and in everyday life, commoning practices can help accelerate sustainability transitions. Using the case of a post-socialist Romanian neighbourhood, Mănăstur, we discuss how design might support the coproduction of alternative imaginaries by creatively engaging with practices of commoning. We do this through the lens of ‘gluing’, which we conceptualise as a situated, mediated, and relational approach to investigating this coproduction process. Rather than aiming for a direct transfer, replication or expansion of the visions generated through commoning, design could provide experiential tools that allow communities to shape their own futures, while making room for differences in perspectives and values. Our findings contribute to the fields of experiential and everyday futures, at the intersection with design and sustainability transitions. To democratise sustainable futures, we suggest that the coproduction of alternative imaginaries needs to involve co-designing with communities, material engagement with wider issues surrounding sustainability, and open-ended and ongoing processes that foster capabilities for collective action.</p

Co-producing commons-based resilience: lessons from R-Urban

The co-production of resilience in European urban neighbourhoods is explored based on the experiences from a case study. Within the current ‘resilience imperative’, co-production processes involving multiple stakeholders can be a key factor for increasing cities’ resilience. Co-produced resilience processes are more successful when embedded in collaborative forms of governance such as those associated with urban commons and when fulfilling needed roles with a community. Through the application of the R-Urban approach in a neighbourhood of Colombes (near Paris), the co-production of a commons-based resilience strategy is described. This involved a group of designers as initiators and a number of citizen as stakeholders of a network of civic hubs. The specific strategies involving a participatory setting, collective governance aspects and circular economies are analysed in the light of co-production theories and practices. Internal and external challenges are identified within the implementation process. The nature of conflicts and negotiations in this co-production approach are discussed, and the role of the architects/designers as agents within the process is investigated. Reflections from this example are provided on the limits and promises of this approach and the lessons learned from R-Urban for collaborative civic resilience

Spectroscopic studies on nanocomposites obtained by functionalization of carbon nanotubes with conducting polymers

International audienceVibrational properties of composites based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) and conducting polymers of the type polyaniline (PANI) and poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) are reported. For PANI-functionalized SWNTs, the intensity increase of the Raman band at 178 cm-1, associated with radial breathing modes of SWNTs bundles, indicates an additional roping of nanotubes due to the presence of the polymer. The interaction of this composite with NH4OH solution involves an internal redox reaction between PANI and SWNTs. Thus, the polymer chain undergoes a transition from the semi-oxidized state into a reduced one. The functionalization of SWNT side walls with PEDOT is invoked as well

The Right to the Sustainable Smart City

Environmental concerns have driven an interest in sustainable smart cities, through the monitoring and optimisation of networked infrastructures. At the same time, there are concerns about who these interventions and services are for, and who benefits. HCI researchers and designers interested in civic life have started to call for the democratisation of urban space through resistance and political action to challenge state and corporate claims. This paper contributes to an emerging body of work that seeks to involve citizens in the design of sustainable smart cities, particularly in the context of marginalised and culturally diverse urban communities. We present a study involving co- designing Internet of Things with urban agricultural communities and discuss three ways in which design can participate in the right to the sustainable smart city through designing for the commons, care, and biocultural diversity

Co-design and urban resilience: visioning tools for commoning resilience practices

In response to the environmental and social challenges of an uncertain future, practitioners and communities across Europe and beyond have started to engage with the concept of ‘resilience’ and experiment with forms of local resilience. However, many of these initiatives tend to remain localised, isolated projects, with little capacity to instigate broader change and at risk to disappear by not having the means to become sustainable in the longer term. We suggest that one way of sustaining and scaling local resilience practices is by developing digital tools that could enable connections and knowledge sharing across locations, through commoning in the digital realm. In this paper, we introduce the specific co-design process we devised with the aim to develop an initial ‘brief’ for potential tools. By creating a co-design process that is situated, mediated, networked and open-source, we argue that the commoning process initiated in this project has the potential to evolve and expand, beyond the project time and initial user base—an essential quality in the context of collectively enhancing urban resilience through knowledge sharing and mutual support

Controversing Datafication through Media Architectures

In this chapter, we discuss a speculative and participatory “media architecture” installation that engages people with the potential impacts of data through speculative future images of the datafied city. The installation was originally conceived as a physical combination of digital media technologies and architectural form—a “media architecture”—that was to be situated in a particular urban setting. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it was produced and tested for an online workshop. It is centered on “design frictions” (Forlano and Mathew, 2014) and processes of controversing (Baibarac-Duignan and de Lange, 2021). Instead of smoothing out tensions through “neutral” data visualizations, controversing centers on opening avenues for meaningful participation around frictions and controversies that arise from the datafication of urban life. The installation represents an instance of how processes of controversing may unfold through digital interfaces. Here, we explore its performative potential to “interface” abstract dimensions of datafication, “translate” them into collective issues of concern, and spark imagination around (un)desirable datafied urban futures