Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IN2LISBON (IN²LISBON - Innovative and Inclusive Lisbon)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-09-01 do 2023-08-31
The main objective of IN²LISBON was to collect and combine new and diverse data to understand and disseminate good ideas about Lisbon's urban transformation into a city of digital innovation. I looked for data from the point of view of its public managers, its residents, workers and entrepreneurs (Portuguese and foreigners).
The importance of the research is justified by the relevance of this process of urban and economic transformation for Lisbon and Portugal, in this last decade in which the city and country were trying to emerge from a serious economic crisis, precisely in a period of growth of digital economy in Europe and the world.
Lisbon created and boosted a "digital innovation ecosystem", a network or community of interdependent people and companies in the digital economy, the core of this innovative city. The city has become internationally recognized as a center of digital innovation in Europe and has attracted more and more digital entrepreneurs and investments through the combination of (i) different fiscal policies and (ii) legal policies, integrated with (iii) “material investments” (state construction of a large hub to promote new digital technology companies, and private constructions of hubs, coworking, co-living and creative spaces) and (iv) “symbolic investments” (campaigns about the innovative and digital city, with a new brand and slogan, strategically prepared speeches by public leaders about the benefits of a future centered on new technologies).
The idea of State and business leaders is to transform Lisbon into a creative and innovative city in digital and disruptive technologies, and not just another city in which these foreign technologies are tested and implemented. This plan is in accordance with European Union guidelines for the next decade. However, the city has become more expensive to live in. Its spaces, public and private, are in dispute. The imaginaries about the city are also there. There is also no guarantee that digital entrepreneurs and investors are committed to long-term plans and investments - on the contrary, they are very susceptible to ephemeral and deterritorialized business strategies, and can change their companies and investments between countries very quickly.
The importance of the research is justified by the relevance of this process of urban and economic transformation for Lisbon and Portugal, in this last decade in which the city and country were trying to emerge from a serious economic crisis, precisely in a period of growth of digital economy in Europe and the world.
Lisbon created and boosted a "digital innovation ecosystem", a network or community of interdependent people and companies in the digital economy, the core of this innovative city. The city has become internationally recognized as a center of digital innovation in Europe and has attracted more and more digital entrepreneurs and investments through the combination of (i) different fiscal policies and (ii) legal policies, integrated with (iii) “material investments” (state construction of a large hub to promote new digital technology companies, and private constructions of hubs, coworking, co-living and creative spaces) and (iv) “symbolic investments” (campaigns about the innovative and digital city, with a new brand and slogan, strategically prepared speeches by public leaders about the benefits of a future centered on new technologies).
The idea of State and business leaders is to transform Lisbon into a creative and innovative city in digital and disruptive technologies, and not just another city in which these foreign technologies are tested and implemented. This plan is in accordance with European Union guidelines for the next decade. However, the city has become more expensive to live in. Its spaces, public and private, are in dispute. The imaginaries about the city are also there. There is also no guarantee that digital entrepreneurs and investors are committed to long-term plans and investments - on the contrary, they are very susceptible to ephemeral and deterritorialized business strategies, and can change their companies and investments between countries very quickly.
[Methodology]
As methodological resources, based on grounded theory and in Weberian comprehensive sociology, I used:
(i) ethnographic fieldwork (with participant and distanced observations);
(ii) semi-structured interviews (26 in total);
(iii) documentary research (public documents and news);
(iv) bibliographic research (valuing transdisciplinarity).
I also used maps, photos and graphs with secondary quantitative data.
[Progress of the Activities]
WP1 (KICK-OFF, 4 months): the kick-off of the project and the research, with entry into the field of work and first introduction to the host institution.
WP 2 (DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS, 16 months): most of the project’s tasks and activities of data collection and analysis.
WP3 (WRAP-UP, 4 months): the activities that mark the concluding phase of IN²LISBON: writing, submission for publications, final report, search for professional opportunities in Brazil.
[Training and dissemination]
Until now, I have just written and submitted: a book review on decolonial sociological theory (P1); a chapter for a scientific book based on my presentation at the recent Congress of the Brazilian Society of Sociology (P2); two scientific articles (P3 and P4) based on presentations and full texts from conferences and seminars already held.
I presented the research results at five congresses (one in Portugal, one in Spain, three in Brazil). I also held three seminars, two workshops, wrote four non-academic articles and gave three lectures in non-academic environments. Other works are under construction and will be presented in the coming months, always with open access.
As methodological resources, based on grounded theory and in Weberian comprehensive sociology, I used:
(i) ethnographic fieldwork (with participant and distanced observations);
(ii) semi-structured interviews (26 in total);
(iii) documentary research (public documents and news);
(iv) bibliographic research (valuing transdisciplinarity).
I also used maps, photos and graphs with secondary quantitative data.
[Progress of the Activities]
WP1 (KICK-OFF, 4 months): the kick-off of the project and the research, with entry into the field of work and first introduction to the host institution.
WP 2 (DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS, 16 months): most of the project’s tasks and activities of data collection and analysis.
WP3 (WRAP-UP, 4 months): the activities that mark the concluding phase of IN²LISBON: writing, submission for publications, final report, search for professional opportunities in Brazil.
[Training and dissemination]
Until now, I have just written and submitted: a book review on decolonial sociological theory (P1); a chapter for a scientific book based on my presentation at the recent Congress of the Brazilian Society of Sociology (P2); two scientific articles (P3 and P4) based on presentations and full texts from conferences and seminars already held.
I presented the research results at five congresses (one in Portugal, one in Spain, three in Brazil). I also held three seminars, two workshops, wrote four non-academic articles and gave three lectures in non-academic environments. Other works are under construction and will be presented in the coming months, always with open access.
From the perspective of this work, after the last global financial crisis (2008), the Portuguese capital has been going through a new round of “urban entrepreneurship”, this time linked to new business models and expectations of the digital economy based on “sociotechnical imaginaries”.
The arrival of the “Web Summit” (2016), the largest digital economy conference in the world and held annually since then, and the announcement of the construction of “Hub Criativo do Beato” (Beato Creative Hub, 2016), an infrastructure to bring together and boost already robust companies and technological startups, are important milestones of this process.
In terms of unexpected effects, we can list three typifications of innovative Lisbon:
(1) [City of exception and privileges] - It is a categorization that dialogues with the debate on the “State of exception” and refers to the formation and normalization of hierarchies and privileges in city life. It is structured into:
(a) specific legislation for the business of the digital innovation ecosystem;
(b) Gentrification by ecosystem: arrival of digital elites and “sociotechnical vanguards” and increase in the cost of urban living;
(c) The contradictions of diversity: there is a precarious, occasional and (still) subaltern inclusion of women, ethnic minorities, urban poor and elderly people.
(2) [Disruptive city] - Venture capital needs risk cities just as disruptive technologies need disruptive cities. In other words: those cities in which social cohesion can be crossed by an economic restructuring (types of jobs, profit margins, access to affordable housing, average cost of living, ethnic-cultural landscape) very quickly.
(3) [Anxious city] - Cities in which sociotechnical imaginaries legitimize an unstable, uncomfortable, anxious present. A suspension of present-day priorities generates insecurity and demotivation, creating a shorter and less optimistic “horizon of expectations”.
[Impact]
Impact on the researcher’s career - At the end of this MSCA cycle, I feel I have reached my main goal for this post-doctoral experience, that is, reinforcing and upgrading my links with Brazilian academic life.
Benefits for society - Immediate circulation of new ideas and critical reflections to promote urban well-being in Lisbon (and other cities) among those interviewed: stakeholders, residents, workers, entrepreneurs and investors. Topics such as: “soft landing” of infrastructures and digital economy events in the city; psychic effects of rapid urban transformation and gentrification on vulnerable groups (e.g. anxious expectations, fear, feelings of loss and forgetfulness); full inclusion of subaltern groups in the digital innovation ecosystem; gender, class, racism and ageism inequalities in state and private strategies in favor of the digital economy; visibility to specific demands of precarious platform workers and immigrants; valorization of language, culture and local sociability in actions in favor of digital innovation.
European policy objectives - (i) on a scientific level, the dissemination of data on the positive and negative effects of urban transformation processes linked to the search for digital innovation; (ii) at the institutional level, the establishment of direct contacts with stakeholders of Portuguese State, EU, companies, community; (iii) on a sociocultural and symbolic level (“soft power” and “talent attraction”), the dissemination of information about the excellence of EU scientific projects among Brazilian society.
The arrival of the “Web Summit” (2016), the largest digital economy conference in the world and held annually since then, and the announcement of the construction of “Hub Criativo do Beato” (Beato Creative Hub, 2016), an infrastructure to bring together and boost already robust companies and technological startups, are important milestones of this process.
In terms of unexpected effects, we can list three typifications of innovative Lisbon:
(1) [City of exception and privileges] - It is a categorization that dialogues with the debate on the “State of exception” and refers to the formation and normalization of hierarchies and privileges in city life. It is structured into:
(a) specific legislation for the business of the digital innovation ecosystem;
(b) Gentrification by ecosystem: arrival of digital elites and “sociotechnical vanguards” and increase in the cost of urban living;
(c) The contradictions of diversity: there is a precarious, occasional and (still) subaltern inclusion of women, ethnic minorities, urban poor and elderly people.
(2) [Disruptive city] - Venture capital needs risk cities just as disruptive technologies need disruptive cities. In other words: those cities in which social cohesion can be crossed by an economic restructuring (types of jobs, profit margins, access to affordable housing, average cost of living, ethnic-cultural landscape) very quickly.
(3) [Anxious city] - Cities in which sociotechnical imaginaries legitimize an unstable, uncomfortable, anxious present. A suspension of present-day priorities generates insecurity and demotivation, creating a shorter and less optimistic “horizon of expectations”.
[Impact]
Impact on the researcher’s career - At the end of this MSCA cycle, I feel I have reached my main goal for this post-doctoral experience, that is, reinforcing and upgrading my links with Brazilian academic life.
Benefits for society - Immediate circulation of new ideas and critical reflections to promote urban well-being in Lisbon (and other cities) among those interviewed: stakeholders, residents, workers, entrepreneurs and investors. Topics such as: “soft landing” of infrastructures and digital economy events in the city; psychic effects of rapid urban transformation and gentrification on vulnerable groups (e.g. anxious expectations, fear, feelings of loss and forgetfulness); full inclusion of subaltern groups in the digital innovation ecosystem; gender, class, racism and ageism inequalities in state and private strategies in favor of the digital economy; visibility to specific demands of precarious platform workers and immigrants; valorization of language, culture and local sociability in actions in favor of digital innovation.
European policy objectives - (i) on a scientific level, the dissemination of data on the positive and negative effects of urban transformation processes linked to the search for digital innovation; (ii) at the institutional level, the establishment of direct contacts with stakeholders of Portuguese State, EU, companies, community; (iii) on a sociocultural and symbolic level (“soft power” and “talent attraction”), the dissemination of information about the excellence of EU scientific projects among Brazilian society.