Abstract
Large-scale political or cultural events in urban environments disrupt and challenge city residents in making informed decisions to navigate through restricted zones. However, little research exists that examines how residents successfully overcome the mobility turmoils created by such events. Studies into collective intelligence found socio-technical efforts that can assist citizens in dealing with challenging situations in urban environments. Yet, studies into other forms of collective and network sociality and how those forms are interwoven with the social construction of urban space, are rare. In this paper, we present data from the 2014 G20 Summit held in Brisbane, Australia, to propose that collective-informed decisions made by urban residents in disrupted environments are influenced by particular communication patterns and information access, as well as the production and reproduction of urban imaginaries. An urban exploration as the G20 event unfolded, followed by audio-recorded focus groups, was conducted with 14 participants who mapped their walks through the city using a mobile app and captured images of different locations along their paths. The analysis of these data contributes towards a deeper understanding of collective intelligence strategies for citizens interacting with urban space and gives rise to potential strategies for enhancing socio-spatial engagement of urban residents.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
About G20 (2014) Retrieved 15 January 2016. http://www.g20australia.org/about_G20.html
Adams K (2016) Mud army: 6000 expected, 25,000 turn up. Retrieved 29 January 2016. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-floods-2011-mud-army-shows-city-spirit-20160113-gm4q0r.html
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2014) G20 ghost town fears prompt Brisbane City Council to offer CBD free parking. Retrieved 20 January 2016. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-03/ghost-town-fear-prompts-brisbane-council-free-parking-offer/5862108
Bligh A (2016) Remembering “we are Queenslanders.” Retrieved 29 January 2016. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/queensland-floods-2011-a-speech-that-rallied-a-devastated-state-20160112-gm46q1.html
Collie N (2011) Cities of the imagination: science fiction, urban space, and community engagement in urban planning. Futures 43(4):424–431. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2011.01.005
de Certeau M (1984) The practice of everyday life (Translated by S Rendall). University of California Press, Berkeley
Fazel M, Rajendran LP (2015) Image of place as a byproduct of medium: understanding media and place through case study of Foursquare. City Cult Soc 6(1):19–33. doi:10.1016/j.ccs.2014.10.002
Foth M, Hearn G (2007) Networked individualism of urban residents: discovering the communicative ecology in inner-city apartment buildings. Inf Commun Soc 10(5):749–772. doi:10.1080/13691180701658095
Foth M, Choi JH-J, Bilandzic M, Satchell C (2008) Collective and network sociality in an urban village. In: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on entertainment and media in the ubiquitous era. ACM, New York, pp 179–183. 10.1145/1457199.1457239
Frith J, Kalin J (2016) Here, I used to be: mobile media and practices of place-based digital memory. Space Cult 19(1):43–55. doi:10.1177/1206331215595730
Gordon E, de Souza e Silva A (2011) Net locality: Why location matters in a networked world. Wiley. https://market.android.com/details?id=book-v2XKptosHykC
Harvey D (2012) Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution. Verso Books. https://market.android.com/details?id=book-IKJE02gfP0cC
Hiernaux D (2007) Los imaginarios urbanos: de la teoría y los aterrizajes en los estudios urbanos. EURE Rev Latinoam Estud Urbano Reg 33(99):17–30. doi:10.4067/S0250-71612007000200003
Holt-Damant K, Drogemuller R (2015) Creating regional resilience in Australia. In: Barnes PH, Goonetilleke A (Eds.) The proceedings of the 9th annual international conference of the international institute for infrastructure renewal and reconstruction (8–10 July 2013). Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology, pp. 28–35. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/70681/
Kelley MJ (2013) The emergent urban imaginaries of geosocial media. GeoJournal 78(1):181–203. doi:10.1007/s10708-011-9439-1
Korn M, Zander P-O (2010) From workshops to walkshops: evaluating mobile location-based applications in realistic settings. In: Proceedings of OMUE workshop at NordiCHI, Vol. 10, pp 29–32. http://omue10.offis.de/files/OMUE10-Proceedings.pdf#page=31
Lefebvre H (1991) The production of space (translated by D Nicholson-Smith). Blackwell, Oxford
Malone TW (2008) What is collective intelligence and what will we do about it? [w:] Collective intelligence: creating a prosperous world at peace, red. M. Tovey, Oakton, VA: Earth Intelligence Network
Pickering H (2014) $100 million to protect world leaders at G20 Brisbane. Retrieved 23 February 2017. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-g20/g20-brisbane-100-million-to-protect-world-leaders-20141112-11l7e0.html
Pink S (2008) An urban tour The sensory sociality of ethnographic place-making. Ethnography. http://eth.sagepub.com/content/9/2/175.abstract
Pintos JL (1995) Los imaginarios sociales: la nueva construcción de la realidad social. Editorial SAL TERRAE. https://market.android.com/details?id=book-XUxQ3v4Cn7QC
Queensland-Government (2013) G20 (safety and security) Act 2013. https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/LEGISLTN/ACTS/2013/13AC056.pdf
Satchell C, Foth M (2011) Darkness and disaster in the city. IEEE Internet Comput 15(6):90–93. doi:10.1109/MIC.2011.149
Satchell C, Singh S (2005) The mobile phone as a globalising artefact. In: Presented at the HCI international: the 11th international conference on human–computer interaction, Las Vegas: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/12603/
Satchell C, Foth M, Hearn G, Schroeter R (2008) Suburban Nostalgia: the community building potential of urban screens. In: Proceedings of the 20th australasian conference on computer–human interaction: designing for habitus and habitat. ACM, New York, pp 243–246. 10.1145/1517744.1517758
Schuler D (2009) Communities, technology, and civic intelligence. In: Proceedings of the fourth international conference on communities and technologies. ACM, New York, pp 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1145/1556460.1556470
Schuler D, De Cindio F, De Liddo A (2015). Encouraging collective intelligence for the common good: How do we integrate the disparate pieces? In: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on communities and technologies. ACM, New York, pp 157–159. https://doi.org/10.1145/2768545.2768562
Silva A (2003) Bogotá imaginada, Bogotá. CAB/Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Taurus
Silva A (2012) Urban imaginaries from Latin America. Documenta II. Ana Inst Invest Estét 28(88):260–264. doi:10.22201/iie.18703062e.2006.88.2218
Spencer-Espinosa C (2016) Narrativizing cities, localizing urban memories: the (Re) construction of place through urban Cueca in Santiago de Chile (1990–2010). Space Cult. doi:10.1177/1206331215595728
Wissmann T, Zimmermann S (2015) Sound in media: audio drama and audio-guided tours as stimuli for the creation of place. GeoJournal 80(6):803–810. doi:10.1007/s10708-015-9645-3
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the participants of this study for kindly sharing their viewpoints, as well as the QUT Urban Informatics Research Lab team for the valuable comments on this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Estrada-Grajales, C., Mitchell, P., Foth, M. et al. Rat running the G20: collective intelligence for navigating the disrupted city. AI & Soc 33, 133–146 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0747-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0747-y