Metropolitics

The Making of City Digital Twins: The Case of Dassault Systèmes

Oskar Steiner — 2026-02-03T06:00:00Z

With their origins in manufacturing and heavy industry, “digital twins” are increasingly being applied to urban planning and governance. As Oskar Steiner demonstrates, while the private firms that develop these tools often market them as a way to “let the city speak,” in practice they mostly serve as a vehicle to amplify and legitimize those companies' own voices.
As cities rush to brand themselves as “smart,” city digital twins have emerged as the latest techno-utopian promise: a live,

- From the Field / technology, smart city, digital city, digital economy, platformization

Digital Technology and the City: New Forms of Urban Segregation in Cape Town?

Julien Migozzi & translated by Oliver Waine — 2023-06-23T05:00:00Z

In the age of platform capitalism, how is digital technology reconfiguring real-estate markets and access to housing? In Cape Town, South Africa, credit scoring—a form of selection based on financial behavior—has become the norm in this regard, contributing to the reappearance of apartheid-era segregation.
“We don't take tenants under 622”: the response from Ganief, a real-estate agent in Cape Town, is swift. In order to obtain a lease in International Housing Solutions' housing portfolio, a

- From the Field / real estate, apartheid, digital city, inequalities, tech sector, Cape Town, financialization, tech economy, technology, Africa, South Africa

Fablabs in Africa: Digital Innovation for Sustainable Cities?

Armelle Choplin & Martin Lozivit & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-04-16T05:00:00Z

In a context where “smart cities” are being promoted in urban projects in Africa, Armelle Choplin and Martin Lozivit examine the role “fablabs” can play in cities' futures. They show that their emergence can be an opportunity to design a frugal African city, by making use of inhabitants' ingenuity.
The next Africa-France summit—initially to be held in June 2020, now to take place in July 2021—will focus on the “sustainable city” with digital technology and innovation at the heart of debates.

- Essays / innovation, Global South, fablab, Africa, West Africa, technology, digital city

The digital city: challenges for the future

Serge Wachter & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-05-16T05:44:23Z

What is the impact of digital technology on the city and its architecture? Serge Wachter analyses the way in which new information and communication technologies (NICTs) influence not so much the physical form of cities as the individual and social experiences of their inhabitants, and explores the different channels that are leading to a dematerialisation of public space and urbanity.
The digital city is in vogue and those local councils and other public bodies that have not launched

- Debates / architecture, public space, digital city, NICTs, information technology, infrastructures, infrastructure