Smart and Shared Cities

SMART and SHARED Cities

By 2050, two-thirds of the population will live in cities and new urban citizens will reside in cities that are yet to be developed. These developing smart cities need hands-on though visionary designers to create better living conditions and to reinvent citizenship together with the best technologies. The aim of this minor is to introduce students from Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University to the different smart city concepts and the underlying complexity of modern cities through case-based education. This program intends to stimulate a reflective mindset, focusing on the interrelation of problems and responsible innovation.

The increasing size of modern cities, as well as their day-to-day growing complexity, necessitate that city stakeholders incorporate information and communication technologies in the provision of municipal public services. At the same time, they should include citizens and other stakeholders in the design of these services and technologies, while safeguarding the efficiency. In short: there is an urgency to make the smart city a shared city for all urban stakeholders.

How do we ensure inclusiveness, participation and tolerance in the city when we make use of technology? How can we solve these issues in a smart way, for example with the help of ICT? We need professionals who understand the fallacy of a ‘technological fix’ and are knowledgeable about urban challenges and data potential, uphold public values and can work in complex environments and teams. These multilevel challenges run through this minor, in which the main learning goals concern the articulation of urban technologies and data science with citizen experience and multi-stakeholder governance. The learning goals concern knowledge, attitude and skills which in combination need to equip students with a critical mindset that enables them to work towards public needs and interests in smart cities. This minor is multidisciplinary and built on a combination of data, urban, political and social sciences.

For whom?

Students from various disciplines who are interested in the development of smart cities and the digital society are welcome to join the minor.

The minor is aimed at BA-3 students with different study backgrounds, particularly those in social sciences, humanities, design and data-science programmes, such as, but not limited to, Policy, Public Administration and Organisation, Public Administration Science, Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Computer Science, and Urban Studies.

Registration

Students from Leiden University can officially register for the minor in uSis (study activity #1263) and EUR/TUD students can register via OSIRIS, from 3 May onwards.

More information

The minor is a cooperation between Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam. More information on the content of the programme is available via the website of the Centre for BOLD Cities:

https://www.centre-for-bold-cities.nl/minor-smart-and-shared-cities