  Digital societies come with a design paradox: On the one hand, technologies,
such as Internet of Things, pervasive and ubiquitous systems, allow a
distributed local intelligence in interconnected devices of our everyday life
such as smart phones, smart thermostats, self-driving cars, etc. On the other
hand, Big Data collection and storage is managed in a highly centralized
fashion, resulting in privacy-intrusion, surveillance actions, discriminatory
and segregation social phenomena. What is the difference between a distributed
and a decentralized system design? How "decentralized" is the processing of our
data nowadays? Does centralized design undermine autonomy? Can the level of
decentralization in the implemented technologies influence ethical and social
dimensions, such as social justice? Can decentralization convey sustainability?
Are there parallelisms between the decentralization of digital technology and
the decentralization of urban development?
