Thinking City

Our roads are jammed, trams are packed, schools are overflowing with students, there are no available spots at the near-by kindergarten, there’s a line at the supermarket, someone’s elbowing you in the pool, and so it goes... [ view full abstract ]

Our roads are jammed, trams are packed, schools are overflowing with students, there are no available spots at the near-by kindergarten, there’s a line at the supermarket, someone’s elbowing you in the pool, and so it goes on. However, our problems occur only at certain times of the day. In the morning, we go to work, school and place of study. In the afternoon, we come back. In the evening, it’s time to run errands and take part in our hobbies.

Telecommuting, mobile office, flexibility and digital services haven’t affected the daily rhythm of Finnish society. We follow the schedule and logic of industrial society even though we don’t actually need to.

There’s a lot of talk concerning the sharing economy, yet a huge part of our infrastructure and different facilities remain unused for a significant part of the day, and, at the same time, the capital is not used effectively. We can continue living like this and add more lanes to our roads or keep building more schools and kindergartens. Growth requires investments, but not necessarily in a linear respect. We can therefore rise to an entirely new level by utilising the possibilities of digitality and the internet economy in a new kind of rhythm for society.