scholarly journals Ethics of Smart Cities: Towards Value-Sensitive Design and Co-Evolving City Life

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 11162
Author(s):  
Dirk Helbing ◽  
Farzam Fanitabasi ◽  
Fosca Giannotti ◽  
Regula Hänggli ◽  
Carina I. Hausladen ◽  
...  

The digital revolution has brought about many societal changes such as the creation of “smart cities”. The smart city concept has changed the urban ecosystem by embedding digital technologies in the city fabric to enhance the quality of life of its inhabitants. However, it has also led to some pressing issues and challenges related to data, privacy, ethics inclusion, and fairness. While the initial concept of smart cities was largely technology- and data-driven, focused on the automation of traffic, logistics and processes, this concept is currently being replaced by technology-enabled, human-centred solutions. However, this is not the end of the development, as there is now a big trend towards “design for values”. In this paper, we point out how a value-sensitive design approach could promote a more sustainable pathway of cities that better serves people and nature. Such “value-sensitive design” will have to take ethics, law and culture on board. We discuss how organising the digital world in a participatory way, as well as leveraging the concepts of self-organisation, self-regulation, and self-control, would foster synergy effects and thereby help to leverage a sustainable technological revolution on a global scale. Furthermore, a “democracy by design” approach could also promote resilience.

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadinè J Galle ◽  
Sophie A Nitoslawski ◽  
Francesco Pilla

Many of our cities are going digital. From self-driving cars to smart grids to intelligent traffic signals, these smart cities put data and digital technology to work to drive efficiency and improve the quality of life for citizens. Yet, the natural capital upon which cities rely risks being left behind by the digital revolution. Bringing nature online is the next frontier in ecosystem management and will change our relationship with the natural world in the urban age. In this article, we introduce the ‘Internet of Nature’ to bridge the gap between greener and smarter cities and to explore the future of urban ecosystem management in an age of rapid urbanisation and digitisation. The creation of an Internet of Nature, along with the ecosystem intelligence it provides, is an opportunity to elicit and understand urban ecosystem dynamics, promote self-sufficiency and resilience in ecosystem management and enhance connections between urban social and ecological systems.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asmir Gračanin ◽  
Igor Kardum ◽  
Jasna Hudek-Knežević

Abstract. The neurovisceral integration model proposes that different forms of self-regulation, including the emotional suppression, are characterized by the activation of neural network whose workings are also reflected in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). However, most of the previous studies failed to observe theoretically expected increases in RSA during emotional suppression. Even when such effects were observed, it was not clear whether they resulted from specific task demands, a decrease in muscle activity, or they were the consequence of more specific self-control processes. We investigated the relation between habitual or trait-like suppression, spontaneous, and instructed suppression with changes in RSA during negative emotion experience. A modest positive correlation between spontaneous situational and habitual suppression was observed across two experimental tasks. Furthermore, the results showed greater RSA increase among participants who experienced higher negative affect (NA) increase and reported higher spontaneous suppression than among those with higher NA increase and lower spontaneous suppression. Importantly, this effect was independent from the habitual suppression and observable facial expressions. The results of the additional task based on experimental manipulation, rather than spontaneous use of situational suppression, indicated a similar relation between suppression and RSA. Our results consistently demonstrate that emotional suppression, especially its self-regulation component, is followed by the increase in parasympathetic activity.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis David Von Gunten ◽  
Bruce D Bartholow ◽  
Jorge S. Martins

Executive functioning (EF) is defined as a set of top-down processes used in reasoning, forming goals, planning, concentrating, and inhibition. It is widely believed that these processes are critical to self-regulation and, therefore, that performance on behavioral task measures of EF should be associated with individual differences in everyday life outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to test this core assumption, focusing on the EF facet of inhibition. A sample of 463 undergraduates completed five laboratory inhibition tasks, along with three self-report measures of self-control and 28 self-report measures of life outcomes. Results showed that although most of the life outcome measures were associated with self-reported self-control, none of the life outcomes were associated with inhibition task performance at the latent-variable level, and few associations were found at the individual task level. These findings challenge the criterion validity of lab-based inhibition tasks. More generally, when considered alongside the known lack of convergent validity between inhibition tasks and self-report measures of self-control, the findings cast doubt on the task’s construct validity as measures of self-control processes. Potential methodological and theoretical reasons for the poor performance of laboratory-based inhibition tasks are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Raiyn

Abstract This paper introduces a new scheme for road traffic management in smart cities, aimed at reducing road traffic congestion. The scheme is based on a combination of searching, updating, and allocation techniques (SUA). An SUA approach is proposed to reduce the processing time for forecasting the conditions of all road sections in real-time, which is typically considerable and complex. It searches for the shortest route based on historical observations, then computes travel time forecasts based on vehicular location in real-time. Using updated information, which includes travel time forecasts and accident forecasts, the vehicle is allocated the appropriate section. The novelty of the SUA scheme lies in its updating of vehicles in every time to reduce traffic congestion. Furthermore, the SUA approach supports autonomy and management by self-regulation, which recommends its use in smart cities that support internet of things (IoT) technologies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 84-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Beckmann ◽  
Madison Ehmann ◽  
Tom-Nicolas Kossak ◽  
Benedikt Perl ◽  
and Wiebke Hähl

Abstract. Volition is an essential component of sport and exercise. It comprises self-regulation processes complementing motivation to facilitate successful action. Therefore, sport psychological interventions or psychological skills training largely involve volition. Essentially, three theoretical approaches to volition have stimulated sport psychological research: the theory of action control, the Rubicon model of action phases, and the resource depletion model. These three models will be outlined and evaluated with regard to their contribution to sport psychological research. Despite their contributions, research on the exact mechanisms underlying volition is still in its infancy. Based on new developments involving affective neuroscience and self-control success, potential mechanisms are suggested. Subsequently, we discuss how these developments can advance the aforementioned well-established theories.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Townsley Christine

Peoples’decisions to persist or disengage from a goal are essential to successful self-regulation. Whenpeople encounter unattainable goals, persistence can cause psychological and physicaldistress. The present study hypothesizes that variation in task persistence (an individual’s decisions to continue in a particular task or behavior) is due in part to peoples’ evaluations of the task’s attainability. In a within subjects design, participants were given two sets of challenging cognitive puzzles with several unsolvable items. The first set of puzzles had no cue about attainability, but the second set included an answer option indicating that the correct answer was not present. As predicted, the attainability manipulation had a significant effect on persistence, with participants spending less time on puzzles when they were cued that they might be unattainable. Most significantly, participants high in self-control spent less time on impossible puzzles in the un-cued condition, an effect opposite our prediction and the literature consensus.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-77
Author(s):  
M.A. Odintsova ◽  
N. Radchikova

In the sphere of higher education, which is considered one of the most promising in promoting inclusive ideas, great attention is paid to students’ personal resources, characterizing the person's internal voluntary activity: self-control, self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-management, self-knowledge, self-support, self-regulation, and self-activation. They are these personal resources that mediate the students' subjective assessment of the external situation (the absence of barriers, the availability of different types of support), weaken the negative impact of disability, preserve the psychological balance and motivate them to overcome difficulties. A study conducted on the Russian sample showed that inclusive education is effective for students with disabilities and is a motivating factor for their healthy peers. The data obtained is consistent with the results of studies in other countries and cultures


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