Reparative futures of smart urban governance: A speculative design approach for multispecies justice

Abstract

In recent years, urban governance within smart city contexts has increasingly turned towards processes and practices of “futuring” to guide city visions and planning. Particularly with the increased focus on sustainability within smart urban governance, these futuring practices often rely on environmental monitoring technologies to guide reparative actions for environmental harms and promote multispecies justice. Yet, these futuring practices often overlook or are disconnected from the past where these environmental harms and injustices were sustained. Little attention has been paid to how smart urban governance might consider both past and future to better account for multispecies justice. This paper introduces a speculative design methodology within a reparative futures framework as it explores multispecies justice in smart urban governance. It reports on a methodological study conducted in Brisbane, Australia, in which participants—including policymakers, environmental lawyers, scientists, urban planners, and climate activists—undertook a speculative futuring design process intending to address past harms faced by multiple species and to repair relations within a more-than-human world. Direct engagement with the past in futuring practices helps us reflect on how smart urban governance might take accountability and institute better reparative actions to materialise multispecies justice.