Call for contributions

Introduction and Workshop Goals

Once in 10 year you have the possibility to discuss about current trends in research on computing for quality of life and propose your vision for the future at the decennial Aarhus conference. This time
“Critical and participatory development of people centered smart learning ecosystems and territories”
has been chosen as one of the themes that are likely to be influential throughout the next decade and offer an agenda for alternatives with computing technologies through new forms of societal and critical engagement. 
Since 2005 we are assisting to a rush to transform cities into smart cities. At present, however, still doesn’t exist a fully shared definition of smart city: in the understanding of the majority a smart city is a sort of dream-city, i.e. a complex and optimized environment, or eco-system, where it could be desirable to live. This because it promises to preserve and improve the wellbeing of society, exploiting information and communication technologies (ICT) as an infrastructural backbone able to influence and improve key factors like mobility, environment, people, quality of life and governance. However, going beyond the most popular top-down functionalist approach a new vision of regional and city smartness driven by a ‘people in place centered design’ approach is emerging. Not by chance, recently we have assisted to a shift of the meaning ascribed to the adjective ‘smart’ that has incorporated a higher consideration for the centrality of the individuals, their personal characteristics and their expectations, the quality of their experience and their well-being and, as well, for the characteristics of the contexts in which they work and live, to include also the preservation of the environment. In this framework the interaction with the environment is moving from the metaphor “being able to use” towards the metaphor “actively influence and critical build”; individuals transformed from consumers into “digital enactive” and produce an increasingly amount of “traces” and “artefacts” that actively contribute to the re-definition of places and spaces.It is quite evident that within the development of people centered smart cities the underlying and ubiquitous techno-ecosystems - whose embedded intelligence, sensitivity and responsiveness surround the individuals - challenge the future of the learning ecosystems and call for a critical and participatory redefinition of spaces, contents, processes, skills and benchmarking approaches. Such challenge requires the involvement of all potential stakeholders to develop critically the mediation role of ICT to:

• foster awareness about complexity and its government (orchestration)  

• support the acquisition of appropriate behaviors, skills & competencies

• promote open access to space, tools, services, practices, content/data, people/skills

• tame discontinuities (time - space/place - technological - process - learning practices)

• identify the driving factors of the smartness including those from the characteristics of local cultures and contexts

• support policy and decision making 

• promote social innovation & learning, capacity building and a sustainable economy 

• develop adequate monitoring and benchmarking approaches

• tame privacy, data control, security and safety

About position papers and authors

Accordingly to the expectations of the Critical Alternatives conference we invite submissions from authors who understand themselves in line with the spirit of the workshop Aarhus Conferences and with that of the workshop.
Submitted position papers, while academically sound, will be evaluated on the capability to:

• inspire the workshop agenda

• offers a strong contribution to theory and practice

• provides new perspectives and offers critical alternatives

• has potential for long lasting impact

Proceedings

After the workshop, authors of selected contributions will be invited to prepare a revised and extended paper to be included as part of a focus section of Interaction Design and Architecture(s) (IxD&A); an IxD&A slot has been reserved for the first half of 2016

The focus session will be integrated with high quality papers submitted following an open call for papers that will be launched on late Autumn 2015.

Deadline for paper submission

20th May 2015