Digital Dictionary

H

Habitele

Dominique Boullier

CEE, Sciences Po, Paris, France

Inhabiting the digital world

Inhabiting the digital world may seem like a daring formula, but it opens up countless avenues for innovation and allows us to think critically about the spaces created by the digital platforms that shape our daily lives. We often speak of data architectures or digital urbanism to design our eco-system. But we neglect to think about the conditions that allow us to inhabit (live) and not only to lodge (stay). We can take shelter under a porch, and we can stay in a hotel; this does not mean that we inhabit; this elementary human experience (Radkowski 2002) is essential to the construction of a liveable urban world, and the digital world is no exception. The systemic platforms (the GAFAMs) have designed housing for everyone, provided that everything is open to all winds, so that they can collect all the traces they market, on the condition that they impose a rhythm of activity such that it creates an atmosphere of stress that must be shared, if we want to benefit from the reputation effects that are at the heart of this environment. It is high time to redesign these platforms to make them liveable, habitable, and to make it possible to exercise our capacity to inhabit.

The term habitele is formed from the term habere, which indicates “having”, which should be defining of social entities rather than “being”, according to Tarde (2001). But the possessor can also be affected by their possession, ...