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Place-oriented digital agency: Residents’ use of digital means to enhance neighbourhood change

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  • Hadas Zur

Abstract

The smart city literature mostly focusses on digital initiatives from above. However, digitalisation also reshapes the city from below. Residents use digital means and platforms to empower their agency in the city. This paper aims to explore how residents utilise digital tools to activate their agency and influence local politics. The paper focusses on one neighbourhood in the city of Tel Aviv where different groups of residents struggle to promote their desired political-spatial vision. The main question is whether digitalisation produces new forms of agency on the neighbourhood scale. The paper argues that: (1) digitalisation provides residents with new forms of connective action, creating digital networks at different scales, using representational practices and forming new spaces for political negotiation; (2) through these practices, they manage to influence the symbolic and political status of the neighbourhood and reframe the struggle over its character and future; (3) groups with higher digital agency gain wider visibility of their claims and needs with politicians, the media and public officials. Importantly, this does not only serve middle-class groups. (4) Ultimately, residents become predominant political actors through digital agency. Methodologically, this paper includes two methods: (i) interviews with residents and municipal workers and (ii) social media analysis and online ethnography. The conclusion elaborates the concept of place-oriented digital agency as a particular type of agency aimed at determining change in a specific locale.

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  • Hadas Zur, 2024. "Place-oriented digital agency: Residents’ use of digital means to enhance neighbourhood change," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(16), pages 3110-3128, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:16:p:3110-3128
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231224629
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Rosa Thoneick, 2021. "Integrating Online and Onsite Participation in Urban Planning: Assessment of a Digital Participation System," International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), IGI Global, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Massimo Airoldi, 2018. "Ethnography and the digital fields of social media," Post-Print hal-02312144, HAL.
    3. Rob Kitchin, 2015. "Making sense of smart cities: addressing present shortcomings," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 131-136.
    4. Merav Kaddar, 2020. "Gentrifiers and attitudes towards agency: A new typology. Evidence from Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(6), pages 1243-1259, May.
    5. Tali Hatuka & Hadas Zur, 2020. "Who is the ‘smart’ resident in the digital age? The varied profiles of users and non-users in the contemporary city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(6), pages 1260-1283, May.
    6. Tali Hatuka & Issachar Rosen-Zvi & Michael Birnhack & Eran Toch & Hadas Zur, 2018. "The Political Premises of Contemporary Urban Concepts: The Global City, the Sustainable City, the Resilient City, the Creative City, and the Smart City," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 160-179, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. George C Galster & Jan Ãœblacker, 2024. "Digitalisation, neighbourhood change and urban social processes: Conceptual framework and introduction to the Special Issue," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(16), pages 3015-3027, December.

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