Governance in the Digital City
Klaus Philipsen – While one can easily see how the digital world can empower and equalize especially through access, information and horizontal connectivity, the down-sides begin to take shape as well, notably the loss of privacy, the danger of information abuse but also the loss of identity through too much fluidity. The city with its anonymity provided the freedom that the village without privacy could not offer (Tonkiss, Space, the City and Social Theory). We need to think hard if we want to turn the world into global village with the associated loss of anonymity and freedom. The sense of “home” comes from recognition. If cities will occupy several realities at once and fluidly move back and forth between them, recognition may become impossible and with it the identity of space and the comfort recognition provides. [Full article]
Reading Development 