Research summary
Technological innovation and urban development have long walked hand in hand. But over the last decade, we have seen digital technologies insert themselves into urban life through the platform economy (that is, activities made possible by technologies like the internet and mobile applications, such as online sales or technology frameworks). Unlike the "smart city," whose promised top-down transformations of local governance and infrastructure have been slow to materialize, digital platforms are rapidly and steadily reconfiguring urban spaces from the bottom up as interactions between citizens, consumers and firms become platform-mediated.
Dr. David Wachsmuth, Canada Research Chair in Urban Governance, is investigating the co-transformations of urban governance, urban life and the platform economy. The results generated by Wachsmuth and his research team will influence policy development and urban social science.