Technological Sovereignty: Towards a New Challenge for Cities

Last 7 October we participated in the BITS (Barcelona Initiative for Technological Sovereignty) inaugural conference ‘Technological Sovereignty: A New Challenge for Cities?’ wich took place at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). The main purpose of BITS is to stimulate a global debate about the changing meanings of sovereignty and explore the ways in which various types of sovereignty – of citizens, cities, nation-states, and regions – can still be maintained in today’s highly technological global conditions. The discussion Housing crisis, impact of predatory platforms on rental market, and city public policy alternatives was chaired by Arnau Monterde.

The conference was featured by keynotes of Paul Mason, journalist and author of PostCapitalism: A Guide to our Future; Evgeny Morozov, author of To Save Everything, The Folly of Technological Solutionism, and Anna Minton, author of Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City. Among its participants, there were also activists, academics, journalists and municipal managers from the Ajuntament de Barcelona among others.

Links:

• Barcelona Initiative for Technological Sovereignty (BITS)
• Conference streaming
• BITS partners:
  • Hans Crescent Symposium
  • Internet Interdisciplinary Institute of the Open University of Catalonia (IN3/UOC)
  • Institute of Government and Public Policies (IGOP)
  • Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
  • Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)