Abstract

As a cross-sectional technology, ICT is already having an impact on almost all areas of the working and living environment. This applies above all to cities as areas of the highest information density, nodes of technical networking and places where users of the new technologies are concentrated. Nevertheless, when it comes to the connections between technological development and urban development, it is important to realise that we are approaching a highly speculative topic. The German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu), together with the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), has structured the subject area of "New media and urban development" and specified issues relevant to urban development, documented examples of the use of new ICT technologies with relevance to urban development policy and developed recommendations for how urban development policy should deal with the subject in the future. To this end, existing material was analysed, surveys were conducted in cities, a future workshop and an expert hearing were held and numerous individual discussions were held with experts. The results make it clear that exuberant expectations of the potential of "new media" for urban development are just as inappropriate as their negation. They make us suspicious of overly simple cause-and-effect assumptions, although the desired exaggeration of the potential effects on urban development has repeatedly led us to present complex interrelationships in an abbreviated form. However, the results also show that, despite increasing spatial flexibility, the information society is not retreating into a "vacuum" and remaining placeless, but on the contrary is shaping new spatial constellations, adding a virtual space to the material space and placing both in complex contexts

Authors

Fields of research

Communication and publicity, Technology Assessment and Participation