Solutions, Strategies and Frictions in Civic Hacking

17 Pages Posted: 17 May 2015

See all articles by Sung-Yueh Perng

Sung-Yueh Perng

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth)

Rob Kitchin

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Maynooth University) - NIRSA

Date Written: May 16, 2015

Abstract

Through the development and adoption of technical solutions to address city issues the smart city seeks to create effortless and friction-free environments and systems. Yet, the design and implementation of such technical solutions are friction-rich endeavours which produce unanticipated consequences and generate turbulence that foreclose the creation of friction-free city solutions. In this paper we argue that a focus on frictions is important for understanding civic hacking and the role of social smart citizens, providing an account of frictions in the development of a smart city app. The empirical study adopted an ethnographically informed mobile methods approach to follow how frictions emerge and linger in the design and production of a queuing app developed through civic hacking. In so doing, the paper charts how solutions have to be worked up and strategies re-negotiated when a shared motivation meets differing skills, perspectives, codes or designs; how solutions are contingently stabilised in technological, motivational, spatiotemporal and organisational specificities rather than unfolding in a smooth, linear, progressive trajectory.

Keywords: friction, solutions, strategies, civic hacking, apps, smart city

Suggested Citation

Perng, Sung-Yueh and Kitchin, Rob, Solutions, Strategies and Frictions in Civic Hacking (May 16, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2606939 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2606939

Sung-Yueh Perng

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUI Maynooth) ( email )

Main Street
Maynooth, Kildare W23 F2H6
Ireland

HOME PAGE: http://progcity.maynoothuniversity.ie/contributors/sung-yueh-perng/

Rob Kitchin (Contact Author)

National University of Ireland, Maynooth (Maynooth University) - NIRSA ( email )

2nd Floor
Iontas Building
Maynooth, County Kildare W23 F2H6
Ireland

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