Bibri Simon Elias, Allam Zaheer, Krogstie John
Department of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Sem Saelands veie 9, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Department of Architecture and Planning, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Alfred Getz vei 3, Sentralbygg 1, 5th floor, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Comput Urban Sci. 2022;2(1):24. doi: 10.1007/s43762-022-00051-0. Epub 2022 Aug 12.
The emerging phenomenon of platformization has given rise to what has been termed "platform society," a digitally connected world where platforms have penetrated the heart of urban societies-transforming social practices, disrupting social interactions and market relations, and affecting democratic processes. One of the recent manifestations of platformization is the Metaverse, a global platform whose data infrastructures, governance models, and economic processes are predicted to penetrate different urban sectors and spheres of urban life. The Metaverse is an idea of a hypothetical set of "parallel virtual worlds" that incarnate ways of living in believably virtual cities as an alternative to future data-driven smart cities. However, this idea has already raised concerns over what constitutes the global architecture of computer mediation underlying the Metaverse with regard to different forms of social life as well as social order. This study analyzes the core emerging trends enabling and driving data-driven smart cities and uses the outcome to devise a novel framework for the digital and computing processes underlying the Metaverse as a virtual form of data-driven smart cities. Further, it examines and discusses the risks and impacts of the Metaverse, paying particular attention to: platformization; the COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing non-spontaneous "normality" of social order; corporate-led technocratic governance; governmentality; privacy, security, and trust; and data governance. A thematic analysis approach is adopted to cope with the vast body of literature of various disciplinarities. The analysis identifies five digital and computing processes related to data-driven smart cities: digital instrumentation, digital hyper-connectivity, datafication, algorithmization, and platformization. The novelty of the framework derived based on thematic analysis lies in its essential processual digital and computing components and the way in which these are structured and integrated given their clear synergies as to enabling the functioning of the Metaverse towards potentially virtual cities. This study highlights how and why the identified digital and computing processes-as intricately interwoven with the entirety of urban ways of living-arouse contentions and controversies pertaining to society' public values. As such, it provides new insights into understanding the complex interplay between the Metaverse as a form of science and technology and the other dimensions of society. Accordingly, it contributes to the scholarly debates in the field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) by highlighting the societal and ethical implications of the platformization of urban societies through the Metaverse.
平台化这一新兴现象催生了所谓的“平台社会”，即一个通过数字连接的世界，在这个世界中，平台已渗透到城市社会的核心，改变着社会行为，扰乱着社会互动和市场关系，并影响着民主进程。平台化的最新表现之一是元宇宙，这是一个全球平台，预计其数据基础设施、治理模式和经济进程将渗透到城市生活的不同部门和领域。元宇宙是一组假设的“平行虚拟世界”的概念，这些虚拟世界体现了在可信的虚拟城市中生活的方式，作为未来数据驱动的智慧城市的替代方案。然而，这一概念已经引发了人们对元宇宙背后的计算机中介全球架构在不同社会生活形式和社会秩序方面构成要素的担忧。本研究分析了推动数据驱动的智慧城市发展的核心新兴趋势，并利用研究结果为作为数据驱动的智慧城市虚拟形式的元宇宙背后的数字和计算过程设计了一个新颖的框架。此外，它还审视并讨论了元宇宙的风险和影响，尤其关注：平台化；新冠疫情危机以及随之而来的非自发的社会秩序“常态”；企业主导的技术官僚治理；治理术；隐私、安全和信任；以及数据治理。本研究采用主题分析方法来处理大量来自不同学科的文献。分析确定了与数据驱动的智慧城市相关的五个数字和计算过程：数字仪器化、数字超连接、数据化、算法化和平台化。基于主题分析得出的框架的新颖之处在于其基本的过程性数字和计算组件，以及鉴于这些组件在使元宇宙朝着潜在的虚拟城市运行方面具有明显协同作用而进行的结构化和整合方式。本研究强调了所确定的数字和计算过程是如何以及为何与城市生活的整体紧密交织在一起，从而引发了与社会公共价值观相关的争论和争议。因此，它为理解作为一种科学技术形式的元宇宙与社会其他维度之间的复杂相互作用提供了新的见解。相应地，它通过强调通过元宇宙实现的城市社会平台化的社会和伦理影响，为科学、技术与社会（STS）领域的学术辩论做出了贡献。
