CUSP-GX 8133 Democracy and the City

3 Credits

We live in a world beset with increasingly complex urban and global challenges where learning how to combine big data and collective intelligence is a must to create public value. Only by learning how to properly mix data analytics and the use of collaborative and participatory strategies will we be able to secure citizens’ rights, expand the provision of public services and improve their quality. This course reviews big ideas, key debates, policies and innovative/disruptive tools around the combination of these two sources of knowledge that, properly blended, have the capacity to transform how we govern the city and the world. Following a Discovery-Design-Delivery approach, students will also learn how we can promote big data democratization, adding a bottom-up approach in the creation, capture, curation, analysis, visualization and data ethics, and will review how we can connect big data with justice, sustainability, livability, and resilience to secure citizens’ socio-economic human rights and anticipate social problems like the ones derived to the aging population. Other questions that we will tackle will be how we can combine artificial and collective intelligence, the role that “global cities” can play in the global economic system and how we can help them to address the opportunities and challenges of the sharing and platform economy. In conclusion, reviewing good practices from around the world, the course purpose is twofold: (1) to enhance your sophistication in thinking about and analyzing the big data and collective intelligence blended practices, and (2) to hone your skills about how to work with public institutions, especially cities but also regional, state and federal governments, and putting them into practice developing practical collaborative and participatory management skills.

Also listed under: Formerly CUSP-GX 8009