Introduction [Enhancing places through technology]

Abstract

The rapid diffusion and uptake of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) presents a new and unique challenge for cities as social life and urban space becomes increasingly (yet unevenly) mediated by new technologies and digital devices. As ICTs continue to infiltrate urban and social realms, there is a pressing need to understand the complexity of this rapidly expanding social and spatial phenomenon. The papers in this collection contribute to an emerging body of work that seeks to understand the relationships between people, the physical urban space and opportunities for place-making, and technology. These three dimensions form the vertices of an important triangle, having far-reaching implications, be it in the development of new technologies, in the understanding of human behaviour and in the definition, and possibly rethinking, of urban spaces. Possibly more importantly, there are significant overlaps, and interfaces, between these three pillars that are investigated by some of these papers.