Digital-First for Human Flourishing? Testing a New Approach to Sustainable Urban Development

As identified by the update to the Global Research and Action Agenda (2024), local municipalities are increasingly exploring digital solutions to address climate change, but despite a rise in digital solutions, many cities struggle to scale these solutions due to technological, financial, and institutional barriers. Digital technologies are often judged by how much they improve speed, scale, or efficiency. However, shifting beyond using technology for optimization, to transformation, can help cities implement solutions to help people and communities thrive. The session will take the form of an interactive workshop combining a short framing presentation with facilitated discussion and participant exchange. After introducing the concept of digital-first (Baskerville et al., 2020; Falcke et al., 2024) for human flourishing, participants will be invited to reflect on examples from their own research or practice, discuss key tensions and opportunities, and contribute insights that can help shape a more transformative and human-centered approach to digital urban climate action.