Semiotic coevolutionary perspective for digitalization & spatial planning. Dilek Unalan Bogazici University

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1 Semiotic coevolutionary perspective for digitalization & spatial planning Dilek Unalan Bogazici University

2 Transitions of human society Hunter-gatherers Agrarian society Industrial society Post-industrial society Digitized society

3 History of urban settlements The first urban settlements appeared around 3000 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. Harappa, Lothal, and Mohenjo-daro were the earliest examples of the first deliberately planned and managed cities.

4 More changes than in all the previous centuries of cities existence after the industrial revolution (300 years ago) Millions of rural dwellers no longer needed on farms flocked to the cities, where new factories churned out products for the new markets made accessible by transportation systems (Ellis, 2014)

5 Changing approaches in city planning 1900s- scientific city planning 1920s- planning garden cities, preparing beautiful city designs, 1960s- realistic planning, large-scale urban planning with the complex systems and modelling 1980s- transition process towards post-industrial society with the highest evolution of capitalism 1990s- increasing pressure of neoliberalisation on existing planning frameworks and practices 2000s- failing traditional planning processes, extensive use of digital technology, webs, flows and networks,relational /fluid planning

6 What are the possible paths for spatial planning in the emerging digitalization era?

7 Complexity, spatial planning & digitalization adaptation, self-organization, coevolution, transition are the key features of complex systems a complex system is one in which there are multiple pathways by which the system can evolve (Ladyman&Lambert, 2012) coevolution is a key process producing, and maintaining the complex networks of interacting species (Ehrlich & Raven, 1964)

8 Building a conceptual framework human populations evolve with their cultural systems and other non-human populations a conceptual framework of coevolution between society and nature keeps nature and culture under one conceptual umbrella (Weisz and Clark, 2011)

9 Semiotic Coevolution a learned and/or cultural feature brings about a genetic support also takes place as a natural selection by constructing a man-made niche, humans provided themselves with new selection pressures and set themselves within a new environment, an environment they now have to adapt to (Cousins 2014)

10 Semiotic coevolution When needs and goals change, the process of symbolic reference generates new meanings in such a way as to make those signifiers useful to addressing the need. The result is a change in the collective construal of a cultural entity, and thus a change in the entity itself (Cousins, 2012)

11 Semiotic Coevolution symbolic reference itself is an adaptive trait designed to construe cultural entities according to prior needs and goals, thus to produce meaning conducive to the achievement of these goals (Cousins, 2012)

12 Applying the semiotic coevolutionary approach What are the signifiers of digitalization? What are the changing needs and goals? What are the new meanings and shared understandings? What are the changes in urban spatial patterns?

13 Signifiers of digitalization digits ICT apps Information networks digitalization knowledge economy information socıety technological innovation

14 Emerging needs and goals new infrastructure (high speed digital communication networks) new service standards new knowledge and skills redefinition of living and work spaces reorganization of planning processes

15 Digitalization effects on spatial planning Technological adaptive pressures Use of new georeferenced data, geospatial technologies, GIScience, remote sensing, mobile computing, computer assisted design, visualisation Conceptualization and programming for virtual reality representations and web-based mapping, web mashups

16 Digitalization effects on spatial planning Social & cultural adaptive pressures Increasing costs of services (public private) dual city phenomenon Growing inequalities (knowledge and skills)

17 Case Example The Digital City of Amsterdam the digital city platform for communication between The Municipal Council and citizens was created by the Municipality (1996) digital city has provided an opportunity to the people to access information for their everyday life & share interactively real-time sensory information

18 Digitization Progress of Istanbul the digitization progress is relatively slow. local servers are slightly departing from the country s.tr to the.ist extension by ongoing pilot projects: real life Living labs, water and wastewater applications with significant reuse of resources, smart grid applications and local generation of electricity, applications for buildings and retrofits for households of Istanbul The Municipal Authority is already in operation to notify the IT centers of local municipalities for urgent or everyday citizens needs by the support of iphone and android apps a mass digital communication and social networking has emerged in a selforganized way since 2013

19 Conclusions development of the information, knowledge and network society and ICTs will influence both practices and the theorization of spatial planning. use of geospatial technology seems to be the main tool for decision-making

20 dual city phenomenon becomes deeper in terms of social and cultural differences, and economic inequalities in cities the extent of spatial planning adaptation to complex digitalization processes relies on the success of geospatial technologies to reflect the fundamental spatial concepts and to improve spatial thinking

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24 Thank You!!!