Modernity has entrusted technology with such power that it is treated as an autonomous entity, with its own manners and morals. Technological disruptions are also socially disruptive: technological failures reveal both the constituents of the technology itself and the social fabric woven by this technology. Cities are the quintessential technological arrangement, not only materially but also as a conceptual framework: the ubiquity of technology makes us think and plan cities mostly in terms of technological arrangements. Unplugging the City: The Urban Phenomenon and its Sociotechnical Controversies proposes a conceptual and methodological framework for analyzing certain urban phenomena as a technological assemblage. It demonstrates, through multiple case studies, the sociotechnical complexities involved in the stabilization and disruption of urban technological arrangements. Examples range from the urban phantasmagorias portrayed in science-fiction movies to the urban proposals of Brasilia and Masdar, from the book of bike-sharing systems to pervasive global surveillance systems. Written by Fábio Duarte and Rodrigo Firmino, based on their original research and publications, this is an essential resource for those interested in the theory and study of technology and its inextricable influence on the city.

**Check out the Doug Unplugs animated series on Apple TV!** It's easy being a robot, if you play by all the rules—but when Doug gets curious, he decides to unplug and forge his own path. And he discovers a whole world of what's possible. Doug is a robot. His parents want him to be smart, so each morning they plug him in and start the information download. After a morning spent learning facts about the city, Doug suspects he could learn even more about the city by going outside and exploring it. And so Doug . . . unplugs. What follows is an exciting day of adventure and discovery. Doug learns amazing things by doing and seeing and touching and listening—and above all, by interacting with a new friend. Dan Yaccarino's funny story of robot rebellion is a great reminder that sometimes the best way to learn about the world is to go out and be in it. Praise for Doug Unplugged: "A gentle robotic rebellion." —USA Today A sweet tale . . . Yaccarino [is] especially good at slipping in the small, nourishing details that are savored upon repeated readings." —The New York Times

Filled with practical advice from children, parents, and teachers, this book explains TV addiction and how to fight it.

In 24/6, Tiffany Shlain explores how turning off screens one day a week can work wonders on your brain, body, and soul. Internet pioneer and renowned filmmaker Tiffany Shlain takes us on a provocative and entertaining journey through time and technology, introducing a strategy for living in our 24/7 world: turning off all screens for twenty-four hours each week. This practice, which she’s done for nearly a decade with her husband and kids (sixteen and ten), has completely changed their lives, giving them more time, productivity, connection, and presence. She and her family call it “Technology Shabbat.” Drawn from the ancient ritual of Shabbat, living 24/6 can work for anyone from any background. With humor and wisdom, Shlain shares her story, offers lessons she has learned, and provides a blueprint for how to do it yourself. Along the way, she delves into the neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and history of a weekly day of rest across cultures, making the case for why we need to bring this ritual back. A compelling personal story and a fascinating, far-reaching examination of the complex world we’ve created, 24/6 is a call to rebalance ourselves and our society.

The New Companion to Urban Design continues the assemblage of rich and critical ideas about urban form and design that began with the Companion to Urban Design (Routledge, 2011). With chapters from a new set of contributors, this sequel offers a more comparative perspective representing multiple voices and perspectives from the Global South. The essays in this volume are organized in three parts: Part I: Comparative Urbanism; Part II: Challenges; and Part III: Opportunities. Each part contains distinct sections designed to address specific themes, and includes a list of annotated suggested further readings at the end of each chapter. Part I: Comparative Urbanism examines different variants of urbanism in the Global North and the Global South, produced by a new economic order characterized by the mobility of labor, capital, information, and technology. Part II: Challenges discusses some of the contemporary challenges that cities of the Global North and the Global South are facing and the possible role of urban design. This part discusses spatial claims and conflicts, challenges generated by urban informality, explosive growth or dramatic shrinkage of the urban settlement, gentrification and displacement, and mimesis, simulacra and lack of authenticity. Part III: Aspirations discusses some normative goals that urban design interventions aspire to bring about in cities of the Global North and the Global South. These include resilience and sustainability, health, conservation/restoration, justice, intelligence, access and mobility, and arts and culture. The New Companion to Urban Design is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students interested in cities and their built environment. It offers an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across a range of disciplines including urban design, planning, urban studies, and geography.

The digital age emerged suddenly on the world's timeline and has drastically changed the shape of culture. Consequently, today's entertainment has become one of the biggest stumbling blocks to spiritual growth and family health in our nation. Parenting teens was a noble challenge long before society became surrounded by captivating screens, and navigating life as a teen had plenty of difficulties and distractions long before the game changing technology of the smartphone. The bottom line is that parents and teens are both in need of help! Our generation is faced each day with an all-you-can-eat media buffet. It has a huge influence on how we think, how we spend our time, and how we relate to others. It can also affect our relationship with God. Christians have been eager to keep up with the sweeping changes but have fallen far behind in Biblical wisdom. There is a growing need for media discernment in the light of following Jesus. Very few authors have broached the topic of media literacy from a Christian worldview. Phillip Telfer handles this challenging subject deftly with story-driven analogies that serve as a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. While this does not conclude with a call to be anti-media or anti-technology, it does raise concerns about the unchecked enthusiasm regarding media and entertainment, which are often consumed without discretion. This book will help you discover the Biblical principles that can inspire reasonable convictions. Learn how God's word addresses the unique challenges we face today. This book can help parents and teens discover how and why to guard their hearts and find freedom in this media captive culture.

Smart City Citizenship provides rigorous analysis for academics and policymakers on the experimental, data-driven, and participatory processes of smart cities to help integrate ICT-related social innovation into urban life. Unlike other smart city books that are often edited collections, this book focuses on the business domain, grassroots social innovation, and AI-driven algorithmic and techno-political disruptions, also examining the role of citizens and the democratic governance issues raised from an interdisciplinary perspective. As smart city research is a fast-growing topic of scientific inquiry and evolving rapidly, this book is an ideal reference for a much-needed discussion. The book drives the reader to a better conceptual and applied comprehension of smart city citizenship for democratised hyper-connected-virialised post-COVID-19 societies. In addition, it provides a whole practical roadmap to build smart city citizenship inclusive and multistakeholder interventions through intertwined chapters of the book. Users will find a book that fills the knowledge gap between the purely critical studies on smart cities and those further constructive and highly promising socially innovative interventions using case study fieldwork action research empirical evidence drawn from several cities that are advancing and innovating smart city practices from the citizenship perspective. - Utilises ongoing, action research fieldwork, comparative case studies for examining current governance issues, and the role of citizens in smart cities - Provides definitions of new key citizenship concepts, along with a techno-political framework and toolkit drawn from a community-oriented perspective - Shows how to design smart city governance initiatives, projects and policies based on applied research from the social innovation perspective - Highlights citizen's perspective and social empowerment in the AI-driven and algorithmic disruptive post-COVID-19 context in both transitional and experimental frameworks

Introducing a new concept of urban space, Cities and Metaphors encourages a theoretical realignment of how the city is experienced, thought and discussed. In the context of ‘Islamic city’ studies, relying on reasoning and rational thinking has reduced descriptive, vivid features of the urban space into a generic scientific framework. Phenomenological characteristics have consequently been ignored rather than integrated into theoretical components. The book argues that this results from a lack of appropriate conceptual vocabulary in our global body of scholarly literature. It challenges existing theories, introduces and applies the concept of Hezar-tu (‘a thousand insides’) to rethink the spaces in historic cores of Fez, Isfahan and Tunis. This tool constructs a staging post towards a different articulation of urban space based on spatial, physical, virtual, symbolic and social edges and thresholds; nodes of sociospatial relationships; zones of containment; state of intermediacy; and, thus, a logic of ambiguity rather than determinacy. Presenting alternative narrations of paths through sequential discovery of spaces, this book brings the sensual features of urban space into the focus. The book finally shows that concepts derived from local contexts enable us to tailor our methods and theoretical structures to the idiosyncrasies of each city while retaining the global commonalities of all. Hence, in broader terms, it contributes to a growing awareness that urban studies should be more inclusive by bringing the diverse global contexts of cities into the body of our urban knowledge.

A handbook for the practitioners, this book is a complete treatise on the topic of Smart, covering: 1. A comprehensive framework with the needed definitions, concepts, strategies, approaches, and technologies to develop and manage a greenfield or brownfield Smart city. 2. Integrating economics, developmental concepts, engineering, environment and governance that sets the definitive foundation of the Smart framework. 3. Technologies that are powering the Smart movement. Extensive case-studies. 4. Societal and Political research, and progress made by the academia. 5. Specific methodology of measuring Smart elements of a city. Introduction to the concepts of Smart Map and Smart Index. 6. A structured approach to transformation, setting priorities, execution, financing and governance. The new structure and market dynamics of the Smart industry.

The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, Practices and Applications explores the merging relationship between physical and virtual spaces in planning and urban design. Technological advances such as smart sensors, interactive screens, locative media and evolving computation software have impacted the ways in which people experience, explore, interact with and create these complex spaces. This book draws together a broad range of interdisciplinary researchers in areas such as architecture, urban design, spatial planning, geoinformation science, computer science and psychology to introduce the theories, models, opportunities and uncertainties involved in the interplay between virtual and physical spaces. Using a wide range of international contributors, from the UK, USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Japan, it provides a framework for assessing how new technology alters our perception of physical space.