I’m angry. It’s not the passionate, fly-off-the-handle type of anger but a frustrating, slow-burn type of anger. We are all talking about diversity and inclusion these days and nowhere is it more important than the world of urban development. The smart city sector is about making cities more inclusive and livable for all residents and visitors. The more I learn about smart development plans, the more I realize that these are blueprints for the way humans will live in the future. So why is it that such a huge percentage of the people working in this field are of one specific demographic?
I just finished an online course about the design and technology for the next generation of equitable smart cities and it was wonderful. I learned a great deal. There was a faculty director for the course and 16 speakers. Two of them were women and all the rest were white men. I have been interviewing for jobs and generally all the managers are men. I admire a number of companies doing great work in the sector but feel disappointed when I see that their posts on LinkedIn show photo after photo of meetings and events and all (or at least the great majority) of the people in the photos tend to be men of the same ethnicity. It’s exhausting and it makes me truly wonder who is ever going to listen to my voice. It makes me feel that the only way I am going to get a seat at the table is if somebody takes a chance on me and that isn’t very likely if they have not seen yet that this is a problem. And that makes me feel angry and discouraged.
Don’t get me wrong. These guys have great intentions. They studied hard and they chose to dedicate their lives to helping create a better society. They made good use of their privilege. They learned the rules and they live by them. The number of advanced degrees and titles are astounding and impressive. But I don’t understand how a homogeneous group can really think that they can come up with the best solutions for a heterogeneous society. It seems counterintuitive and they seem smart enough to know that.
Okay, there is more diversity at the lower levels of each of these organizations. In the course videos I saw a greater diversity of people in the background and on the company websites I see a few minority faces but it still feels like it is not enough because the smart city/ urban development sector is so incredibly academic. Any sector that is so academic tends to favor the elites in the top positions because getting a high-level degree such as a doctorate requires many years of study with only small amounts of income, if any. And then there is the issue that we are only now as a society starting to realize that ability has nothing to do with gender or ethnicity but if you nurture the talents of only one group in the population, they are the only group who will be successful. Or feel empowered to speak as an expert on a topic.
The point is that building a smart city plan based on consensus of diverse members of the community is simply not enough. We need diverse teams to create these plans because we need all types of perspectives to contribute to not only the ideas but also the building of solutions. It is unreasonable to expect that one demographic, however accomplished they may be, might be able to come up with the best solutions for everyone. And it is not enough to try to be inclusive with new hires as long as they fit your mold, we have to improve the way that we value people who are different from us and realize that the only way to create equitable societies is through truly diverse teams.
smartcityperspectives.com 