By 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities. One of the biggest problems cities face is crime and violence, especially homicides. In fact, mayors talk about violence and public safety more than almost any other subject. Even war, the most extreme form of violence, has increasingly become urbanized. Another big trend in cities is digitalization – measured both by their higher degrees of connectivity, fast adoption of smartphones and urban tech, but also the fast adoption of so called smart-city technologies. Smart cities and smart city technologies are terms used to refer to computational models of urbanism and to data driven and algorithmically intermediated technologies. Not surprisingly, security is one of the issues for which these technologies are most often used – by governments, the private sector and by the general public in cities, as they use social media and messaging apps to connect with their communities and to spread information about security threats in their cities. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this general trend.Throughout our work, our research and events have focused on one central question: how is the increasing digitalization of urban security impacting how people coexist in cities?

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About Edgelands’ Fellowship Program

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This was a remote Fellowship that ran from September 2022 to June 2023.Throughout the year, fellows became members of a cohort of international academics and professionals dedicated to research investigating the intersection of security, cities and digital technology. Fellows also met every month to share progress on their research and give each other feedback. International and local experts from fields of interests were invited to these conversations.

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The fellows participated in the following activities:

‍1. Produce an article(s) in their field of research in which the Edgelands Institute’s contribution is recognized. These papers are aggregated on our website;

‍2. Write at least one blog post connecting their research to current events for the general public.

3. Present their research at an internal conference hosted by the Edgelands Institute.

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We invited current or graduated PhD students, postdocs, professors and researchers in academic institutions, and artists to apply. We especially welcome applications from researchers who are linked - whether personally, academically, or professionally - to Edgelands’ Cities Portfolio. Edgelands seeks likewise artists who are curious about how visual storytelling can shed light on the ways that digital technologies are changing cities.

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Fellowship duration:  September 2022 to June 2023.

‍Fellowship total stipend: 1400 USD

‍Fellowship mode: Remote

Application due date: July 25th, 2022

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