In recent years, rapid changes have occurred at the intersection of cities and technology. As smart city technologies have matured and become institutionalized, utopian discourses about them have faded. Instead, there is a growing focus on the digital platforms as the key technological and organizational method through which city life is digitally mediated, and a focus on understanding the underlying algorithms and AI technologies that increasingly shape urban life.

In light of these changes, we invite submissions for a new book, tentatively titled Beyond Smart Cities: AI, Platforms, and Our Digital Urban Future, to be published in 2023 by Springer as part of The Urban Book Series. The book is being published in coordination with the 18th biennial Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management (CUPUM), to be held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on June 20-22, 2023 (seehttps://www.cupum2023.org). An author from each accepted chapter will be expected to present at this event.

We invite scholarship which charts our path forward towards our digital urban future, through innovative theoretical, empirical, and technical contributions. We are especially interested in submissions in three topics:

  • Platform Urbanism: Platforms have become a major area of research and implementation as cities experiment with new uses of active and passive urban sensing and communication technologies but also are impacted by new digital economies (e.g., Uber, Zillow);
  • Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in the City: Algorithms that analyze big data from transit systems, cell phone networks, social media, and other sources, and generate new opportunities for insight and decision-making, but also raise important technical, ethical, and analytic questions;
  • Urban Mobility: The use new data and theory to build a richer understanding of movement within urban environments and to develop improved tools for planning and policymaking.

We also invite submissions on other related topics, such as urban informatics, planning support systems, city modeling and simulation, urban big data, public participation GIS, and gaming and digital engagement.

Submission Format and Review

Chapters should be 4,000 to 6,000 words in length, including notes, figures, tables, and references. Chapters need an abbreviated abstract (max 150 words) covering the introduction, methodology, major conclusions, and recommendations. Citations should follow the author-date method and be provided in a reference list following the Springer Basic Style. Abstracts will be in English and French online and in print. Inclusion of the paper as a chapter in the book implies acceptance of a publishing agreement which requires transfer of copyright to the publishers. Twenty-five to 30 chapters will be selected for inclusion in a book, published by Springer in time for the conference. These chapters will be selected based on the outcomes of a double-blind peer review process overseen by the book co-editors. Chapters not accepted into the book will be invited to be revised and resubmitted as conference papers.

Submit online here: https://www.cupum2023.org/call-for-submissions

Deadlines

October 28, 2022 - Draft Chapters Due (extended from an earlier call, but no further extensions are planned)

December 23, 2022 - Decisions and reviews provided to authors

January 20, 2023 - Revised versions of accepted papers due

June 2023 - Book publication date