New Urban Layers and Spaces: Infrastructures, Experiences, and Interactions

1. Introduction

This chapter explores infrastructures (Finger, 2016), experiences (Dourish and Bell, 2011), and interactions (Vertesi, 2014) in relation to emerging urban layers and spaces for engagement in the city. The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on the digital layers enabled by information and communication technologies, the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of People (IoP), the Internet of Experiences (IoE), and other emerging technologies to complement and extend existing urban infrastructural layers. The research literature for infrastructures, experiences, and interactions is explored in this chapter in the context of smart cities, enabling identification of issues, controversies, and problems. Using an exploratory case study approach, solutions and recommendations are advanced. As such, this chapter presents an overview of emerging understandings of infrastructures in contemporary urban environments in terms of new digital layers and spaces in relation to existing physical and services layers and their complex intermingling (Finger, 2016).

• Objectives: A key objective of this chapter is to explore emerging infrastructures, experiences, and interactions from the perspectives of diverse individuals across urban environments in terms of the potential for more connected, contextual, and continuous engagement. As such, the key question to be explored in this chapter is – How do new urban layers of urbanity enable spaces for engagement in smart cities?

2. Background And Overview

Highlighting the importance of urban experience in informatics research, Williams, Robles, and Dourish (2009) employ the concept of urbane-ing pointing to the importance of the social and technological aspects of infrastructures for material, spatial, and institutional interactions. Further motivating this work is the call by Luskin (2010), from a media psychology perspective, for discussions about the “human experience” of the “gadgets and gizmos” that constitute “important devices that we use in daily life.” Information infrastructures as data infrastructures (Mattern, 2014) are highlighted along with materialized understandings of urban infrastructure (Smith, 2016) and the notion of inverse infrastructure (Egyedi and Mehos, 2012) in the form of emergent bottom-up initiatives. Described as ambient informatics, Payne and Burke (2015) combine aesthetics, technology, and innovative design in the creation of public experiences. Using the example of bus information, the project leverages pervasive computing to “communicate information in everyday environments” so that with a smartphone and an application such as Bus Next, people are able to access travel information (Payne and Burke, 2015). However, in the absence of a smartphone and app, an illuminated bench, glowing brighter as the bus approaches, communicates arrival information drawing on real-time data in support of more viable city, sidewalk, and wait-time experience (Payne and Burke, 2015). Smith (2016) distinguishes between physical urban infrastructure as roads and railways and the human infrastructure of materialized dialogue where talk and turn-taking occur between community members and planners, designers, and city managers. This materialized dialogue is said to be recursive, dynamic, unfinished, and characterized by fluid engagement, involving ongoing accommodation in the absence of perfect agreement (Gabrys, 2016).

Employing an emergent, exploratory case study approach and a framework developed from a review of the research literature, this exploration of engagement is operationalized through an inquiry into new urban layers and spaces in relation to infrastructures, experiences, and interactions placing an emphasis on the digital. This chapter makes a contribution to: a) the research literature across multiple domains; b) the identification of challenges and opportunities for research and practice relating to emerging urban layers and spaces going forward; and c) the extending of existing understandings of urbanity to incorporate digital layers and spaces enabling the potential for more meaningful engagement.