从技术中心主义到人本主义:智慧城市研究进展与展望

From technocentrism to humanism:Progress and prospects of smart city research

随着5G网络、物联网、云计算、大数据分析、地理信息系统等新技术的兴起,探索更具包容性和创新潜力的参与式治理,引导高效的技术研发与运用,实现城市“以地方现实为基础、以社会需求为导向”的智慧化转型,已成为国内外城市地理学的重要与前沿议题。人本主义视角下的智慧城市研究,为地理学者介入这一领域提供了理论工具。不同于技术中心主义将智慧城市视作由数字技术构成的物理空间集合,人本主义强调特定情境下的技术、社会(人文治理)与空间的互动。该视角呼吁对多方行动者参与技术研发、基础设施建设与治理决策的合作互动开展微观研究,以揭示智慧城市的共建过程与地方性驱动机制。论文梳理了国内外人本主义研究的最新进展,认为该视角下的研究仍然沿袭“技术中心”或采用与之对立的“知识中心”立场,而缺少技术—社会互动的视角来理解城市智慧化转型。论文提出未来值得深入探讨的议题,即技术与社会(治理)的共生性、围绕技术研发的社会关系互动复杂性、技术研发与关系互动的语境化分析。探讨以上议题有助于理解智慧城市如何作为一个复杂地域系统,在人与技术的持续互动中发生转型,也可为未来中国相关研究提供理论借鉴。

With the implementation of new technologies such as 5G networks,the Internet of Things,cloud computing,big data analysis,and so on,inclusive and innovative governance and efficient innovation and application of technologies that lead cities towards smartness have become crucial and frontier topics of exploration in current international urban geography.The study of smart cities from the perspective of humanism provides an effective theoretical tool for geographiers in this field.Different from the perspective of technocentrism that regards smart cities as a collection of physical spaces composed of a communication infrastructure network and digital technology,the humanism perspective emphasizes the interaction of technology,humanistic governance(society),and space in a specific(local)context.It calls for a micro-survey of the local cooperation mechanism of information and communication technology(ICT)innovation and smart city construction,as well as governance decision making carried out by multiple actors,with a view to revealing the construction process and localized driving mechanism of smart cities,and with an emphasis on the data analysis of individual actions to find out a development path consistent with local conditions.This study examined the latest developments in humanistic research on smart cities,arguing that current studies still follow the technocentric perspective or adopt the opposite knowledge-centric position,but lack a technology-society synergy perspective.On this basis,this article proposes future research topics that are worthy of in-depth discussion,namely,the symbiosis of technology and society,the complexity of social interactions on technology innovation,and the contextual analysis of technology innovation and interactions.Our discussion may help to understand how smart cities,as a complex human-environment system,undergo transformation in the continuous interaction of people and technology,and provide some theoretical references for the study of smart cities in China.