Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme

Smart city policy approaches have been gradually transitioning in parallel with data policy regulations. This is the case for Barcelona, which has been executing its policy framework called ‘data commons’ with the goal of further grassroots-led urban experimentations. This paper examines to what ext...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Calzada, I, Almirall, E
Format: Conference item
Published: Zenodo 2019
_version_ 1826290715506769920
author Calzada, I
Almirall, E
author_facet Calzada, I
Almirall, E
author_sort Calzada, I
collection OXFORD
description Smart city policy approaches have been gradually transitioning in parallel with data policy regulations. This is the case for Barcelona, which has been executing its policy framework called ‘data commons’ with the goal of further grassroots-led urban experimentations. This paper examines to what extent the new paradigm of ‘data commons’ will remain and even be reinforced, given the ongoing local elections and the volatile political and regional context of the upcoming May 2019 elections. In doing so, this paper elaborates on the steps Barcelona has been taking, given the new ‘Declaration of Cities Coalition for Digital Rights’ signed by Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York. Nonetheless, as a result and continuation of previous published fieldwork research, by applying the Penta Helix framework from a social innovation perspective, this paper questions why several implementations are being consolidated while others actually show a tension between two different models: ‘platform capitalism’ vs ‘platform co-operativism’. In regard to the former model, permanent strikes provoked by the Elite Taxi BCN association in August 2018 in response to the aftermath of big tech companies Cabify and Uber initially cleared to operate in Barcelona by the regional government, have demonstrated the negative side-effects of ‘platform capitalism’. By contrast, Som Energia is a successful case study based on the latter innovative business model, ‘platform co-operativism’, stemming from grassroots-led urban experimentation. This paper concludes by suggesting a synthesis regarding the ongoing platform revolution at stake, in light of the need for democratic accountability.
first_indexed 2024-03-07T02:48:26Z
format Conference item
id oxford-uuid:acd47fcf-46b9-448d-b22e-f8af7dc1210f
institution University of Oxford
last_indexed 2024-03-07T02:48:26Z
publishDate 2019
publisher Zenodo
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:acd47fcf-46b9-448d-b22e-f8af7dc1210f2022-03-27T03:31:33ZBarcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy schemeConference itemhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_5794uuid:acd47fcf-46b9-448d-b22e-f8af7dc1210fSymplectic Elements at OxfordZenodo2019Calzada, IAlmirall, ESmart city policy approaches have been gradually transitioning in parallel with data policy regulations. This is the case for Barcelona, which has been executing its policy framework called ‘data commons’ with the goal of further grassroots-led urban experimentations. This paper examines to what extent the new paradigm of ‘data commons’ will remain and even be reinforced, given the ongoing local elections and the volatile political and regional context of the upcoming May 2019 elections. In doing so, this paper elaborates on the steps Barcelona has been taking, given the new ‘Declaration of Cities Coalition for Digital Rights’ signed by Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York. Nonetheless, as a result and continuation of previous published fieldwork research, by applying the Penta Helix framework from a social innovation perspective, this paper questions why several implementations are being consolidated while others actually show a tension between two different models: ‘platform capitalism’ vs ‘platform co-operativism’. In regard to the former model, permanent strikes provoked by the Elite Taxi BCN association in August 2018 in response to the aftermath of big tech companies Cabify and Uber initially cleared to operate in Barcelona by the regional government, have demonstrated the negative side-effects of ‘platform capitalism’. By contrast, Som Energia is a successful case study based on the latter innovative business model, ‘platform co-operativism’, stemming from grassroots-led urban experimentation. This paper concludes by suggesting a synthesis regarding the ongoing platform revolution at stake, in light of the need for democratic accountability.
spellingShingle Calzada, I
Almirall, E
Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title_full Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title_fullStr Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title_full_unstemmed Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title_short Barcelona's grassroots-led urban experimentation: Deciphering the 'data commons' policy scheme
title_sort barcelona s grassroots led urban experimentation deciphering the data commons policy scheme
work_keys_str_mv AT calzadai barcelonasgrassrootsledurbanexperimentationdecipheringthedatacommonspolicyscheme
AT almiralle barcelonasgrassrootsledurbanexperimentationdecipheringthedatacommonspolicyscheme