On 27 January, the Belarusian essayist, Evgeny Morozov, who is well known for his reflections on the social impact of the new technologies, opened the Open City lecture series at the CCCB with a talk titled “Democracy, Technology and City”.

Evgeny Morozov, who is well known for his reflections on the social impact of the new technologies, opened  on 27 January the Open City lecture series at the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) with a talk titled “Democracy, Technology and City”. After being presented by Joan Subirats, Professor of Political Science, Morozov challenged today’s widespread a-critical acceptance of “smart cities” which, he believes, is a result of the fact that they are all too often presented as inevitable. He contends that, in order to counter this tendency, one should inquire into the social and political effects of the “smart city”, “politicise it,problematize it and wonder if it has winners and losers”. As he sees it, obsession over security and efficiency is an attack on a certain level of risk and disorder that is necessary for democratic urban life and that permits, for example, civil disobedience. In warning of the dangers of delegating to technology decisions that should not be excluded from democratic debate, he invited his audience to question the notion of the “smart city”, not from a technophobic standpoint but from that of a critical and participatory spirit.

This event is part of the "Europe City" initiative