Call for Papers (Smart Cities in Smart Regions Conference)
The 3rd International Smart Cities in Smart Regions Conference “Hands on!”
April 20 - 21 - 22, 2022 | ULLB | Avans University | Breda, The Netherlands (NEW DATE!)
The Conference is organized by the Urban Living Lab Breda, Avans University of Applied Sciences and Breda University of Applied Sciences in close co-operation with the municipality of Breda, LAB University of Applied Sciences (FI) and a number of international, national and regional partners and operators.
Do not miss the most exciting happening in the field!
The programme will include interesting and up-to-date keynotes, parallel and poster sessions and workshops
The planetary change we are going through is revolutionary. Major changes in our way of living are urgently needed in order to adapt to the challenges brought about by global change. An eco-social approach invites us to create ideas, plans, solutions, decisions that resonate with the dynamics of the planet earth.
To tackle this urgent issue, we have to involve different stakeholders in co-creation activities both locally and globally in order to reach a shared multi-voiced understanding regarding future scenarios. The value of social and relational encounters has been recognised as crucial to well-being.
In practice, besides making drastic changes in common practices on how to build and manage cities, also citizens should be seen as active contributors to the common good. For example, different groups in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, ability, and a variety of needs should be considered in planning public areas and services.
Regardless of the policy rhetoric, communities today are not yet co-creators of new information, communication and services to a sufficient degree. Research has shown that those who are active participants are often privileged and in order to increase the range of participating, we need to find new ways of being inclusive. This involves breaking assumptions about how things are usually done. The big challenge now is - how are we going to do this?
The traditional concept of design has widened; design thinking is relevant e.g. in strategy design, brand design, digital design and service design. The role of a professional and the role of a user or an inhabitant are comprehended in a new way compared with traditional positions. People are seen as a resource for innovation and development – as individuals or communities who provide the essential information for developing products, services and related processes, such as the ways of managing environmental issues in cities.
New technological developments, together with digitalization, provide more and more opportunities to incorporate smart solutions in living, working and public environments. Digitalization is dominating contemporary discussion dealing with working life and new entrepreneurship opportunities. Digital services are a growing market in all areas of society, both in the private and public sectors. Besides benefits and opportunities, digitalization causes also new kinds of challenges regarding the collection of massive data and the use of big data.
Business and entrepreneurship are at a turning point. Traditional business thinking and logic are being challenged by sustainable business practices and social entrepreneurship. Sharing economy and culture is also growing in importance. Environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions call for a multidisciplinary approach that utilises ecological, social, economic and technological perspectives. Adaptation and resilience to climate change encourage the innovation of new technical solutions that cause less CO2 emissions and mitigate adverse impacts of e.g. extreme weather phenomena on our environment. Additionally, starting innovative business concepts is being supported with new financing opportunities through crowd financing.
The 2022 conference on Smart Cities and Smart Regions serve as an excellent and topical meeting place. While it builds on a growing community of scholars and experts that evolves in resonance with SCSR conferences in previous years, the 2022 conference allows us to share actual insights on the impact of the international covid19 crisis and put these insights in perspective of planetary change. Beyond the immediate threats to public health and the increased polarization in society, new openings for social and technological innovations, adding to social and technological resilience in cities and regions, seem to emerge.
The three conference themes are:
1. Active citizenship & smart city infrastructure
Smart city infrastructure, encompassing green infrastructure, sociotechnical infrastructures and a wide variety of dataplatforms and datacommons, show increasing opportunities for active citizenship. For instance, technological citizenship, citizen science together with related participation and planning processes can be utilised in developing urban infrastructure solutions, including natural elements, that address resilience to climate change.
Extreme and complex events such as covid19 seem to create openings for novel modes of citizenship, citizen science, participation, anticipation and planning. Interestingly, due to the digitization of the living environment and infrastructures, the proliferation of data and digital services enable the use of participatory planning processes. They benefit from new kinds of interaction, such as arts-based methods, an interesting trend in urban planning and landscape design. Ecosystem services provided by nature-based solutions should increasingly be used in mitigating the adverse impacts of climate change. There is an urgent need for more profound understanding on how to establish and manage sustainable constructed ecosystems that have the desired functions and, preferably, are as multifunctional as possible.
List of possible topics (the list is not exhaustive):
- Utilisation of green infrastructure, including constructed nature-based solutions, in managing urban environment
- Creative and participatory methods in planning
- Inclusion and participation in designing services
- Activism and civic action in local communities
- Citizen science and local policy development and planning
- Experimental development case studies
- Place-based innovations
- Smart logistics & mobility, MAAS at regional level
- Smart public safety, new technology enhanced modes of coproduction between citizen initiatives and municipalities
2. Design, technology & digitalization
Design, technology & digitalization will involve design thinking, service design, co-design and innovation theory and practice related issues with both tech and non-tech foci.
List of possible topics (the list is not exhaustive):
- People as a resource
- Design thinking, service design, co-design, innovation management
- Mobility as a service (MaaS)
- Digitalization in cities and regions
- Digitalization in the creative industries
- Smart technologies to face climate change (mitigation and/or adaptation)
- Smart technologies in healthcare and wellbeing
- Crowdsourcing and other new financing opportunities for service and product development
- Change management in sustainable development
3. Circular Economy and Entrepreneurship
Circular economy solutions play a key role in solving the world’s biggest challenges as climate crises, natural loss, and over-consumption of natural resources. In a circular economy by designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials longer in use, we can adopt new business models and create new forms of value. Utilising local and recycled materials instead of virgin and transported materials from faraway sources is a sustainable and environmentally friendly way of constructing urban infrastructure. Imported materials also include the risk of introducing e.g. invasive species. However, there is a major need to develop such solutions and related business.
List of possible topics (the list is not exhaustive):
- Industrial symbiosis and ecosystems
- Local, regional and national systems
- Circular city adaptations
- Energy and material efficiency
- Sharing economy
- User-driven solutions
- Sustainable product and service design
- Sustainable business in theory and practice
- Social entrepreneurship and enterprises
- Circular economy education and training
- Recycled materials in constructing urban infrastructure
Abstracts for oral presentations and posters:
The call for proposals for oral presentations and posters on the above-mentioned themes is now open. Alongside academic papers, also best/worst practices and case studies are welcomed along with special student Thesis presentations and they will be accepted according to more practical criteria. We encourage you to submit abstracts of academically or practically focused proposals, best practices and cases. Theory and practice will be equally emphasised in the programme.
Proposals on workshops:
If you are interested in preparing, organising and leading your own workshop with your network, we would also appreciate receiving proposals for thematic workshops in the Smart Cities in Smart Regions 2022.
Submission:
Please submit an abstract according to the instructions provided on the Conference webpage, Smart Cities in Smart Regions 2022- Call for Papers. The Submission will close on Jan 23, 2022. Abstracts will be peer-reviewed in the end of January early February, and authors of proposals will be notified by Feb 23, 2022. Full papers are requested by May 1, 2022.
Please submit an abstract (with maximum length 3000 characters, including spaces) by January 16, 2022.
Please submit your abstract here: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/82BC60989681B8CA
Abstracts will be peer-reviewed, and authors of proposals will be notified by February 23, 2022. We’ll ask the authors to confirm their participation by March 4. If the authors want to have a full paper included in the conference proceedings, they should submit their paper by May 1, 2022.
Please refer to more detailed instructions: https://urbanlivinglabbreda.nl/message/64140/instructions-for-authors-of-full-papers--smart-cities-in-smart-regions-.
For questions and inquiries, please contact the Scientific Board: scsr.call2021@lab.fi
Do not miss the most exciting happening in the field! The programme will include interesting and up-to-date keynotes, parallel and poster sessions and workshops.
