How to feel safe, prevent harrassment, violence and map the city safe-to-go zones.
As a 4-women team, the challenge was as follows:
“The government of Jalisco has hired you to develop such a wearable device, aimed at 18 to 23 y/o citizens of Guadalajara’s future as a Smart City, in order to foster trust and safety among the members of the community.” (SANABRIA, 2022)
SITUATION
The current situation shows a growing sense of insecurity among townpeople.
“[…] the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara crime and violence are present in so many violent acts that cannot be denied, of murders, of assaults on different businesses, in centric parts, in commercial parts, in restaurants, where people before had the confidence to attend”
“[…]60.8 percent of the population perceives it as unsafe to live in Zapopan, according to the National Survey of Urban Safety,[…], with data as of the fourth quarter of 2021"
During the fourth quarter of 2021, 57.5 percent of the population aged 18 and over changed their habits about carrying things of value for fear of suffering a crime.
Our idea lies in improving the identity and sense of belonging in public spaces , in order to increase the feeling of safety and security via social interactions, with a strong “sense of community” (Francis et al., 2012).
“Sense of community is often defined as “a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members’ needs will be met through their commitment to be together” (McMillan & Chavis, 1986, p. 9).”(Francis et al., 2012)
The current phase of development of the city, within the framework of the “UNESCO Creative Cities Network” programme, allows us to imagine the wildest ideas, leaving room for our imagination, with a guarantee of significant results in theory.
“Perceived quality of POS [Public Open Space] and shops appears to be strongly
associated with sense of community. The presence of high quality
public spaces in local neighbourhoods e irrespective of whether
used frequently or not e may be important for enhancing sense of
community amongst residents. Nevertheless, further research is
needed to explore causation. The benefits of a strong sense of
community are numerous, and potentially include increased
participation in community affairs and better physical and mental
health. Policies that support high quality public spaces are
warranted.” (Francis et al., 2012, p 402)
Guadalajara, JALISCO : UNESCO Smart Creative City of Media
The following documents are excerpts from books in which we can learn more about UNESCO Smart Cities concept.
The selected cities are grouped around many criteria to build 2030 smart city template.
Guadalajara has been selected as CREATIVE CITY OF MEDIA ARTS.
The benefits for the city are numerous especially at the urban and social levels.
OUR PROPOSITION
As a response to the Jalisco government’s specifications, we propose the following approach.
1) Teammates Selected Tipping Points
At starting point, we selected four of the 21 tipping points described in the Deep Shift Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact. The first selection criterion was the common shifts in our individual list. After discussion, we kept the first proposal because they suit to the chosen wearable device and their impacts balance is in correlation with the expectations of the Jalisco government: trust and safety in the community, with youth engagement.
Shift 4: Wearable Internet
Shift 11: Big Data for Decisions
Shift 13: Artificial Intelligence and Decision-Making
Shift 17: The Sharing Economy
In order to involve, as much as possible, the Guadalara’s inhabitants in all the processes, we chose several tools from IDEO’s design kit.
2) Two Selected Tools for the INSPIRATION stage
Photojournal allows us to capture everyday moments and dynamics od the 18–23 audience. As the future concerned use social networks a lot, the recovery of photos could be done by a subscription to their different accounts.One will be inspired for this, of the ethnographic work of Jeffrey LANE.
Five Whys to get at the human and emotional roots of a problem. As we want to build a safe-to-go zones map, we need to assess the profound reasons why people use certain spaces, and not others. To repopulate downtown and increase quality of life, it will be helpful to better understand users’ motivations.
Public Open Space mainly concerned are Plaza Tapatia, Morales Park and Paseo Alameda. To encourage the use of the pedestrian corridor, we need to know why people are using it or not.
3) Selected Tools for the IDEATION stage
“…Of the People, By the People, For the People…” The Gettysburg Address (1863)
As explained earlier, we want to involve the stakeholders in all key stages, to ensure that the solution best meets their expectations.
As we want to involve a maximum of citizens in the projects’ creation , we need tools like “GutCheck Method” to sort and organize the ton of ideas generated during “Co-Creation Sessions”.
To help each citizen to understand how the city is perceived by others,and better the ecosystem mapping, “Role Plays” could be very useful.
4) Selected Tools for the IMPLEMENTATION stage
Why keeping iterating? As we could see above, two solutions are already available but mix them with another “iteration” will make the third solution even more efficient.
By monitoring and evaluating, we could collect data to learn more about what works and what does not suit to the stakeholders. We want to “repopulate the downtown” by improving quality of life and creating places “to learn, create and share” so we will need data to show the first results.
5) Our wearable device description, including its functions and benefits according to Jalisco’s government demands.
Why a Close Protection Wristlace ? To make the city more “women-friendly”.
During our one-and-only team discussion, our four female voices have agreed to highlight the issue of women’s safety.
For instance, in France, 90% of victims of sexist outrages are women.
In Harlem, New York, Jeffrey Lane studied in “The Digital Street”, how digitalisation helped, in some kind, young girls to prevent street harassement.
Quoting the Digital Street book analysis performed by Niccolò Morelli (2020, p 931):
“Female interactions to with males in a digital dimension are of particular interest and offer new opportunities for safe interactions, considering that in physical contexts there is a lot of violence between males and females involved in gangs.”
Then we think that Internet of Things (IoT) could be used to increase safety and sense of security in Guadalajara. With such a digital device, we can propose a solution to a major societal problem by improving the women safety and the jewellery market.
It seems that this subject faces echo in the selected cities and that it should be integrated into the design of the Smart City.
The debate came when the question of alert and reactivity of the rescue was raised.
The “Close Protection Wristlace “was first thought of as a connected object, allowing to signal, according to 4 levels of alert, if the wearer feels in danger, fears for one’s safety, fears for one’s life and a fourth level that remains to be defined, according to the user’s choice, an alert button for instance. By observing what some connected bracelets already offer, our idea is viable.
If no prototype is available yet from ourselves, the design inspiration could come from the following devices or app: Leaf Urban, Ivy, VigekWear, former AtomWear and most of all, MyEli and The Sorority app.
A technological innovation:
represented by a miniaturized and space-saving IoT, in terms of connectivity as well as optimal communication, bluetooth-connected with amobile terminal.
“A social innovation:
MyEli wants to provide security solutions to people to address the problem of street harassment and domestic violence. In the context of the sanitare crisis and the rapid increase in domestic violence, it is necessary to provide a solution to the situation of danger.”
An innovation of use:
by offering people in need of security to have an everyday object, accessible, safe, to scare, alert or reassure.
Designed for women, teenagers, men.
How could run our device project?
Combining MyEli and The Sorority options in a same device will help Janisco Government strengthen the sense of security and well-being in the city, for all individuals and all ages.
We then discussed the fact that when a person was fatally assaulted, the bracelet did not protect them but only helped locate the body. By combining MyEli and the Sorority, the situation is solved. By activating andalert button, the first 50 around are informed in real time and can make contact with the potential victim, geolocate her, get closer, ask for help and contact the authorities or rescue.
We therefore considered the possible use of the data collected to draw up a map of the city, indicating, according to the feeling of the “close protection wristlace” wearers , the safest and most dangerous areas. All these information will be available through Infobox.
6) Lessons learned through this case study
Theorical lessons:
I just discovered a new field of interest : UNESCO Smart Cities. La diversité des villes sélectionnées permet de se projeter à travers plusieurs thématiques : permet de We need to learn how to communicate, collaborate and cooperate and participate as a citizen, in the design of the cities of the Future, would allow each individual to find his place in the community. It would probably promote a sense of well-being in the community. Thus, we could better learn to live together, through our differences, in a shared space, where everyone esteem one’self and be able to listen and empathize one’s neighboors, feel part of a community, find oneself in space by building geographical landmarks, identify and express, by regulating, emotions and feelings.
I also better understood the different implications of the SDG17:
Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
Personal lessons:
Throught this exercise, I learn again about how to deal with teamworks, adapting my working pace of work to my teammates’working pace. We negotiate a common solution as a collective production was requested. As I was skeptical about the final result and everyone’s involvement, I first decided to put this activity on standby, or even “sacrifice” it, doing the bare minimum and I focused on my other homework. I was pleasantly surprised by everything we were able to set up during our one and only online meeting. I was also happy to not “manage” the project, and let my teammates lead the activities.
It was at this stage a very nice activity that I did not want to do at first, but I am not yet able to end.
It is a new door opened, a way to explore to think about the rehabilitation of several cities of my native island.
Quoting Luis SEPULVEDA, “As true as they say one hand washes the other and both wash their [bottom], we have to help each other”.
References
World Economic Forum (2015). Deep Shift Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact. Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GAC15_Technological_Tipping_Points_report_2015.pdf
IDEO (n. d.) Design kit. https://www.designkit.org/
Morelos, J. M. (2014, March 15). Digital Creative City, Guadalajara. YouTube. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UDWfU_wDq0&feature=youtu.be
Aguirre, E. (2022, January 20). 6 de cada 10 habitantes califican a Zapopan, Jalisco, como un municipio inseguro. EL DEBATE. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://www.debate.com.mx/guadalajara/6-de-cada-10habitantes-califican-a-Zapopan-Jalisco-como-un-municipio-inseguro-20220120-0146.html
Sanabria-Z, J. (2022, March 6). Smart City vigilance — Jorge Sanabria-Z. Medium. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://sanabria-z.medium.com/smart-city-vigilance-833c8aae9efd
Ciudad Creativa Digital — Ciudad Creativa Digital. (n.d.). Ciudadcreativadigital.mx. Retrieved 13 April 2022, from https://ciudadcreativadigital.mx/ciudad-creativa-digital/
Francis, J., Giles-Corti, B., Wood, L., & Knuiman, M. (2012). Creating sense of community: The role of public space. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 32(4), 401–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.07.002
NETEXPLO. (2019). Smart Cities Shaping the Society of 2030. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367762
The Smart Geek Wrist Team, T. S. G. W. (2020, November 25). Bellabeat Leaf Urban Review: The Smartest Fitness Tracking Jewelry. Smart Geek Wrist. Retrieved 12 April 2022, from https://www.smartgeekwrist.com/bellabeat-leaf-urban-review/
Drolet, M. (2016, April 11). 7 potential security concerns for wearables. CSO Online. Retrieved 12 April 2022, from https://www.csoonline.com/article/3054584/7-potential-security-concerns-for-wearables.html?msclkid=8be6030aba4b11ecb4425910e654f7fd
MyEli. (n.d.). Le Bijou connecté sécurisant. Retrieved 12 April 2022, from https://myeli.fr/
Simon-Rainaud, M. (2022, January 5). CES 2022 : qui est Ludivine Romary, lauréate du prix de l’innovation avec son bijou connecté MyEli ? Les Echos Start. Retrieved 14 April 2022, from https://start.lesechos.fr/innovations-startups/portraits-innovateurs/ces-2022-qui-est-ludivine-romary-laureate-du-prix-de-linnovation-avec-son-bijou-connecte-myeli-1376292
Marriault, C. (2020, September 17). The Sorority, l’appli qui veut lutter contre les violences faites aux femmes. Les Echos Start. Retrieved 14 April 2022, from https://start.lesechos.fr/innovations-startups/tech-futur/the-sorority-la-nouvelle-appli-qui-veut-lutter-contre-les-violences-faites-aux-femmes-1243380
Kleis, J. (2014, August 12). Atomwear, le bracelet connecté à faire soi-même. Stuffi. Retrieved 12 April 2022, from https://www.stuffi.fr/atomwear-bracelet-connecte-diy/
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