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    Ethics of smart cities: perceptions of technical stakeholders in Pakistan
    (İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi, 2023) Ahsan, Rabab; Yüksekdağ, Yusuf
    ABSTRACT: As the world has raced ahead and developed into a collection of wired cities and connected on the grid communities, we have also become effaced with challenges of urban sprawl, gentrification, pollution and climate change (Halegoua, 2020). Big tech companies as well as multiple governments around the globe are putting forth smart city technologies as a possible solution to our emerging problems, citing the power of modern technologies when data-driven systems as a solution to complex urban issues (Cocchia, 2014). At the same time science and technology research is destabilizing the assumption that technology is value neutral instead scholars posit the technological artifacts are imbued with consequences norms as well as values which can encourage certain behaviors while discouraging others (Costanza-Chock, 2020; Winner, 1980). Furthermore, the black box nature of AI systems further motivates the need to study the “less-tangible” aspects of algorithms and algorithmic thinking (Young & Kitchin, 2020, p. 3). This research undertakes the study of these ‘less-tangible’ aspects of technological artifacts and their creation and investigates how they manifest in the context of Smart City projects in Pakistan. In order to achieve this goal this research focuses on technical stakeholders which may be critically positioned to shed light upon what ethical considerations, deliberations, and concerns surface in the act of technological creation in the country. In so doing this research hopes to add to a conversation that has so far been restricted to western economies and allow the deconstruction of how data harms manifest and low-to-middle income countries. By conducting 12 semi structured participant interviews this research was able to show that while technical stakeholders are unsure of the local implementations of smart city projects the same cannot be said for datafication processes, perceptions of which, were largely positive. It also shows that trust in government-led initiatives is low in comparison to corporate initiatives, due to historical political instabilities. Although participants displayed some understanding of common ethical concerns their knowledge of how these issues can affect local communities was sparse at best, and inclination towards security at the cost of privacy also reared its head in the data. These insights show that local contexts severely impact how ethical choices are made and highlight the importance of including local stakeholders in applications of smart technology. In conclusion this research underscores the importance of mapping data ethics in previously understudied parts of the world so that a fuller picture of what ethics of smart cities means on a global scale can be constructed.