The topic of urban life and the ambient in smart cities, learning cities, and future cities is a timely one, fitting as it does in the world today by responding in an interdisciplinary way across many areas of research and practice. It is essential for researchers to think about and engage with the notion of flourishing in increasingly challenging environments in smarter ways. Urban Life and the Ambient in Smart Cities, Learning Cities, and Future Cities expands upon explorations of urban life to the ambient. As such, perspectives are offered in this work on urban life in the context of smart cities, learning cities, and future cities, enriched by understandings of the ambient, infusing the interactions of people and technologies in 21st-century environments with increased awareness, at the moment. Covering topics such as ambient learning, smart homes, and extended realities, this premier reference work is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, architects, urban planners, instructional designers, sociologists, city officials, community leaders, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

Modern day and technology-rich environments require a reconceptualization of how the nature of technology influences urban areas. Rethinking the way we apply these technologies will not only alter the way people communicate and interact, but it will also alter how individuals learn and explore the world around them. Ambient Urbanities as the Intersection Between the IoT and the IoP in Smart Cities offers insights about the ambient in 21st century smart cities, learning cities, responsive cities, and future cities, and highlights the importance of people as critical to the urban fabric of smart cities that are increasingly embedded with pervasive and often invisible technologies. The book, based on an urban research study, explores urbanity from multiple perspectives ranging from the cultural to the geographic. While highlighting topics including digital literacies, smarter governance, and information architectures, this book is ideally designed for students, educators, researchers, the business community, city government staff and officials, urban practitioners, and those concerned with contemporary and emerging complex urban challenges and opportunities.

Throughout history, humanity has sought the betterment of its communities. In the 21st century, humanity has technology on its side in the process of improving its cities. Smart cities make their improvements by gathering real-world data in real time. Still, there are many complexities that many do not catch-they are invisible. It is important to understand how people make sense at the urban level and in extra-urban spaces of the combined complexities of invisibilities and visibilities in their environments, interactions, and infrastructures enabled through their own enhanced awareness together with aware technologies that are often embedded, pervasive, and ambient. This book probes the visible and invisible dimensions of emerging understandings of smart cities and regions in the context of more aware people interacting with each other and through more aware and pervasive technologies. Visibilities and Invisibilities in Smart Cities: Emerging Research and Opportunities contributes to the research literature for urban theoretical spaces, methodologies, and applications for smart and responsive cities; the evolving of urban theory and methods for 21st century cities and urbanities; and the formulation of a conceptual framework for associated methodologies and theoretical spaces. This work explores the relationships between variables using a case study approach combined with an explanatory correlational design. It is based on an urban research study conducted from mid-2015 to mid-2020 that spanned multiple countries across three continents. The book is split into four sections: introduction to the concepts of visible and invisible, frameworks for understanding the interplay of the two concepts, associated and evolving theory and methods, and extending current research as opportunities in smart city environments and regions. Covering topics including human geography, smart cities, and urban planning, this book is essential for urban planners, designers, city officials, community agencies, business managers and owners, academicians, researchers, and students, including those who work across multiple domains such as architecture, environmental design, human-computer interaction, human geography, information technology, sociology, and affective computing.

This book provides an interdisciplinary lens for exploring, assessing, and coming to new understandings of smart cities and regions, focusing on the six dimensions of sensing, awareness, learning, openness, innovation, and disruption. Using a hybrid case study and correlational approach, people from diverse sectors in a variety of small to medium to large-sized cities in multiple countries (e.g., Canada, United States, Ireland, Greece, Israel, etc.) provide experience-based perspectives on smart cities together with assessments for elements pertaining to each of the six dimensions. The analysis of findings in this work surfaces a rich and interwoven tapestry of patterns from the qualitative data highlighting for example, the importance of emotion/affect, privacy, trust, and data visualizations in influencing and informing the directions of smart cities and regions going forward. Correlational analysis of quantitative data reveals the presence and strength of emerging relationships among elements assessed, shedding light on factors that may serve as starting points for understanding what is contributing to potentials for improving success in smart cities and regions.

This book provides an interdisciplinary lens for exploring, assessing, and coming to new understandings of smart cities and regions, focusing on the six dimensions of sensing, awareness, learning, openness, innovation, and disruption. Using a hybrid case study and correlational approach, people from diverse sectors in a variety of small to medium to large-sized cities in multiple countries (e.g., Canada, United States, Ireland, Greece, Israel, etc.) provide experience-based perspectives on smart cities together with assessments for elements pertaining to each of the six dimensions. The analysis of findings in this work surfaces a rich and interwoven tapestry of patterns from the qualitative data highlighting for example, the importance of emotion/affect, privacy, trust, and data visualizations in influencing and informing the directions of smart cities and regions going forward. Correlational analysis of quantitative data reveals the presence and strength of emerging relationships among elements assessed, shedding light on factors that may serve as starting points for understanding what is contributing to potentials for improving success in smart cities and regions.

Throughout history, humanity has sought the betterment of its communities. In the 21st century, humanity has technology on its side in the process of improving its cities. Smart cities make their improvements by gathering real-world data in real time. Still, there are many complexities that many do not catch-they are invisible. It is important to understand how people make sense at the urban level and in extra-urban spaces of the combined complexities of invisibilities and visibilities in their environments, interactions, and infrastructures enabled through their own enhanced awareness together with aware technologies that are often embedded, pervasive, and ambient. This book probes the visible and invisible dimensions of emerging understandings of smart cities and regions in the context of more aware people interacting with each other and through more aware and pervasive technologies. Visibilities and Invisibilities in Smart Cities: Emerging Research and Opportunities contributes to the research literature for urban theoretical spaces, methodologies, and applications for smart and responsive cities; the evolving of urban theory and methods for 21st century cities and urbanities; and the formulation of a conceptual framework for associated methodologies and theoretical spaces. This work explores the relationships between variables using a case study approach combined with an explanatory correlational design. It is based on an urban research study conducted from mid-2015 to mid-2020 that spanned multiple countries across three continents. The book is split into four sections: introduction to the concepts of visible and invisible, frameworks for understanding the interplay of the two concepts, associated and evolving theory and methods, and extending current research as opportunities in smart city environments and regions. Covering topics including human geography, smart cities, and urban planning, this book is essential for urban planners, designers, city officials, community agencies, business managers and owners, academicians, researchers, and students, including those who work across multiple domains such as architecture, environmental design, human-computer interaction, human geography, information technology, sociology, and affective computing.

Modern day and technology-rich environments require a reconceptualization of how the nature of technology influences urban areas. Rethinking the way we apply these technologies will not only alter the way people communicate and interact, but it will also alter how individuals learn and explore the world around them. Ambient Urbanities as the Intersection Between the IoT and the IoP in Smart Cities offers insights about the ambient in 21st century smart cities, learning cities, responsive cities, and future cities, and highlights the importance of people as critical to the urban fabric of smart cities that are increasingly embedded with pervasive and often invisible technologies. The book, based on an urban research study, explores urbanity from multiple perspectives ranging from the cultural to the geographic. While highlighting topics including digital literacies, smarter governance, and information architectures, this book is ideally designed for students, educators, researchers, the business community, city government staff and officials, urban practitioners, and those concerned with contemporary and emerging complex urban challenges and opportunities.