The following is the abstract and introduction to a paper recently accepted to SMART 2014, to be held in Paris in July.

As the rise in ‘smart’ city initiatives and implementation of technologies within the urban environment become more evident, citizens face irrevocable changes to their environment and their lives within the city. Such a reliance upon technological strategies to fix cities’ ills and a drive for constant innovation within the ‘smart’ city is largely being driven by technology companies and city leaders. Citizens must live with the consequences of such strategies which have the potential to change their environments in momentous ways. In order to develop new technologies within the urban environment Living Labs are becoming increasingly prevalent, enabling designers of technologies to engage with multiple stakeholders, including citizens, in the design and implementation of new products. We present a work in progress that develops a tool for the mapping of and reflection upon, human values in order to avoid unnecessary technologies being imposed upon citizens. Furthermore, we seek to engage those currently driving the ‘smart’ city agenda in envisioning an alternative future where consideration of citizen’s values and the effectiveness of the city takes priority over technology implementation for the sake of efficiencies.

Introduction (first paragraph only)

The contemporary city is a progressively complex entity, with issues such as increasing populations, sustainability and the need for greater efficiency becoming the focus for city leaders and technology companies. As `Smart’ city initiatives increase and the implementation of urban, mobile and ubiquitous computing within this environment become more apparent, the landscape of the city is becoming redefined in a seemingly irreversible race toward autonomous operation of the urban sphere (Townsend:2013).

Physical environments impact upon human psychology and behaviour (Gifford:2002), yet there is little evidence to demonstrate the human aspects of what makes a city are considered when leaders or technology companies begin to consider transformations to make a city ‘smart’ (Kim:2013). Currently there seems to be a focus on the `smart’ rather than the `city’, with a bias toward technological solutions (GaldonClavell:2013). Although cities are making some advances in dealing with major issues such as increases in population, decreases in funding and pressure on existing services, this is not done in a holistic and integrated manner. This leads to the neglection of human factors (Kim:2013,Hollands:2008) and too much reliance upon technology to fix existing and future ills. Ultimately this results in significant implications upon how human beings live in and experience the city.