Sergio Amadeu da Silveira - Cidadania e Redes Digitais

eng
c i t i z e n s h i p a n d d i g i t a l n e t w o r k s
keys for a more appropriate use of natural resources, telecommunications networks,
health care networks, and education systems, among other basic elements for survival
in the contemporary world.
The report presented by UNFPA finds in urban concentration a tension between
“desolation” and “hope.” If this concentration can increase urban insecurity, violence
or environmental problems, on the other hand cities are a more favorable space to
social and political participation. They may offer as well better health services and,
in some cases, more job opportunities — even though unemployment rates are high.
One of the greatest Brazilian intellectuals, geographer Milton Santos, saw indeed
urban concentrations as opportunities. In his opinion, in the city “the daily life
of each person is enriched by their own experience and their neighbors’, and by current
achievements as well as by the prospects for the future” (SANTOS, 2004:173).
In other words, proximity can lead to the perception of differences, to the questioning
of reality, and perhaps to a new way of thinking about human relationships.
Urban areas are the kind of place that can provide the proximity that is needed
to foster a more critical perception of social differences, whether they are enforced
by local realities or by the forces of global capitalism and its technical instruments.
The city in general is a fertile place for the development of various social articulations,
and for the questioning of unequal situations once understood as settled. Exerting
the critical spirit encouraged by urban life can be a transforming experience.
And the current technical period creates a new situation in which communication
techniques enhance the effects of the proximity of people in the city — “techniques”
should be understood herein as the material and social means with which human
beings transform the world (SANTOS, 2002). Information and communication
networks, particularly the Internet, intensify and accelerate the perception of the
ambiguities and paradoxes of urban life, and can lead to new political imaginations
(SANTOS, 2004; BENKLER, 2006).
There are obviously risks in the whole movement of incorporating ICT (Information
and Communication Technologies) to the urban space. The participation of
some, and the absence of others, on the informational flows (a position which is partly
determined by the digital divide) deepens social exclusion. The so called “networked
world” also provides the necessary conditions for a culture of ubiquitous consumption,
thus feeding a myopic individualism and imposing certain technical rationalities that
hinder a more complex understanding of reality and, in many cases, also accelerate
environmental devastation — consider, for instance, the issue of energy consumption.
158