The state of the responsibility
Conceiving State’s actions as a responsibility of each of us
As citizens, we have been demanding a more and more responsive and responsible State. Urban Intelligence has been emerging as a strategy for cities and governments to become more effective in replying to citizens’ needs. That said, the true Smart City is the one capable to match technological approaches with the activation of citizens’ social responsibility. A responsibility that comes from each of us.
“It’s State’s responsibility”
This is the way many statements begin, being them said by national political actors or people we meet in daily life: work colleagues, friends, neighbours, etc.
“Is’s State’s responsibility to promote economic development”; “It’s State’s responsibility to ensure social inclusion”; “It’s State’s responsibility to protect the environment”; and we could simply go further… Nowadays, the State is a concept that is rooted in our society and we look at it as a responsible agent to cover many areas of our collective life.
The importance of the State is undeniable as a mean to reach collective and public interest purposes. With the evolution of times, we let go a State that used to only serve the purpose of border definition, to enrol in a Welfare-State conception, responsible for providing Education, Health and Social Security for every citizen. In recent times, we acknowledge a more intervening and regulatory State in many other matters, such as terrorism combating and cybersecurity, environment protection, people’s free mobility and communication, among others. We might not be aware of it, but the State’s role has become more and more broad and meaningful in our lives because our expectations as a society towards the State have been growing and becoming more demanding.
Even so, we should recall that the State, as an abstract concept, is a social representation of the citizens. Well-known authors from the social and political thought History have entitled the act of State creation as “Social Contract”, that is, as the conception of an abstract theory with legitimate responsibility to perform in collective matters — matters regarding us all. The Contractualism theorists advocate that Men have chosen to sign a Social Contact for the creation of a collective body as a warrant of individuals security and protection (Hobbes, 1651), of property rights defence (Locke, 1689) or of general will pursue (Rousseau, 1762). However, the State’ creation and its responsibilities definition would be associated with the sacrifice of part of individual freedom. In other words, Men, facing the evidence that there are some matters that can only be resolved through collective action, have accepted to subordinate themselves to a superior organization which would represent them and to whom they would transfer responsibilities. That organization is the State.
If Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau’s contractualistic abstractions have helped us put the State and the political power under different perspectives, there is a common line among every one of them: The State is composed by Men and is built up by the power that we attribute to it and the responsibilities we transfer to it.
All this arrives at a simple premise: We are the State.
And this is not a simply rhetorical issue. At any scale of collective nature, we are active members of influence. As citizens, we are responsible for what happens in our own country, despite delegating to politicians our preferences through voting. And even at smaller scales, our responsibility does not shrink. On the contrary, our responsibility is even bigger. We are responsible for the traffic on the streets of our city. We are responsible to keep our neighbourhood clean and pleasant. We are responsible for the existing noise inside our building or inside our home.
The pandemic period we face due to COVID-19 is a clear example of the imperative complementarity between the State’s responsibility and the responsibility from each other. Many investments may be made to equip the health systems, but inglorious if citizens do not abbey with prevention measures. Financial support can be given for the acquisition of protection equipment, but unnecessary if citizens do not use them. The civic participation, where every one of us is called to rise up to the responsibility we have, never has been so important.
Ubiwhere, as a tech-based organization which works daily suiting the future of cities, does not ignore civic participation as an Urban Intelligence key factor. Technological innovation to provide better living conditions and life quality to citizens and deployment of systems that are able to feed decision-makers with real-time information resources are cutting-edge strategies which generate more competitive and greener cities. However, these systems and technologies will fail if citizens do not perform a befitting role. Smart Cities are population clusters with a high level of civic participation, where citizens live up to their own responsibilities for a brighter and smarter future. Therefore, in every on-going project with Cities and Municipalities, Ubiwhere observes and works the human/civic component, appealing to the individual responsibility of each citizen in parallel with the technological capacity. That is the only way we see Cities as potential Smart Cities.
The State — Governments, Parliaments, Municipalities, Cities, etc. — has responsibilities. When we ask the State to take its responsibility, it is legitimate and we must do it. That is one of the supporting pillars of democratic life. However, we should remember that politically wise, each one of us has the mission, the responsibility, to contribute to the design and implementation of solutions for the existing social problems around us.
For each time we demand responsibility from the State, we must assess the state of our responsibility.
