| Title | What smartness does in the smart city: From visions to policy |
|---|---|
| ID_Doc | 37129 |
| Authors | Baykurt, B; Raetzsch, C |
| Title | What smartness does in the smart city: From visions to policy |
| Year | 2020 |
| Published | Convergence-The International Journal Of Research Into New Media Technologies, 26.0, 4 |
| Abstract | This article examines what smartness does on the ground by examining how its anticipatory media visions have been interpreted and acted on in policy decisions and local implementations since the early 2000s. Using a comparative-historical analysis that draws on fieldwork in aspiring smart cities in the United States and Europe, we argue that the visions of smartness are neither singular nor fixed across time and space. Instead, the role of smartness in diffusing new technologies is recruited and reshaped in the present to lend legitimacy to future public and private interventions. We first demonstrate that the narrative of crisis, often associated with smartness, shifted from a pre-2008 emphasis on sustainability and climate change to a post-financial crisis engagement with entrepreneurship and platformization. We then discuss how the development of smart city initiatives has followed divergent paths in the United States and Europe, with big tech companies dominating in the former and the 'living lab' model prevailing in the latter. Our analysis highlights the importance of investigating the complex relationships between anticipatory media visions of smartness and their varying, down-to-earth implementations in the built environment rather than solely focusing on the discursive appeal of techno-idealism. It also explains the enduring appeal of smartness as an urban vision, despite its various shortcomings, by revealing its adaptability to the changing social and political-economic shifts. |
| https://pure.au.dk/portal/files/223913963/What_smartness_does_in_the_smart_city_From_visions_to_policy_accepted_manuscript_2020.pdf |
Similar Articles
| ID | Score | Article |
|---|---|---|
42927
|
Martin, CJ; Evans, J; Karvonen, A Smart and sustainable? Five tensions in the visions and practices of the smart-sustainable city in Europe and North America(2018) | |
| 45634
|
Sadowski, J; Bendor, R Selling Smartness: Corporate Narratives and the Smart City as a Sociotechnical Imaginary(2019)Science Technology & Human Values, 44, 3 | |
| 37276
|
White, JM Anticipatory logics of the smart city's global imaginary(2016)Urban Geography, 37.0, 4 | |
| 44137
|
Hatuka, T; Zur, H From smart cities to smart social urbanism: A framework for shaping the socio-technological ecosystems in cities(2020) | |
| 43400
|
Viitanen, J; Kingston, R Smart cities and green growth: outsourcing democratic and environmental resilience to the global technology sector(2014)Environment And Planning A-Economy And Space, 46, 4 | |
| 45595
|
Haarstad, H Constructing the sustainable city: examining the role of sustainability in the "smart city' discourse(2017)Journal Of Environmental Policy & Planning, 19, 4 | |
| 36440
|
Trencher, G Towards the smart city 2.0: Empirical evidence of using smartness as a tool for tackling social challenges(2019) | |
| 36531
|
Leitheiser, S; Follmann, A The social innovation-(re)politicisation nexus: Unlocking the political in actually existing smart city campaigns? The case of SmartCity Cologne, Germany(2020)Urban Studies, 57, 4 | |
| 37729
|
Burns, R; Welker, P Interstitiality in the smart city: More than top-down and bottom-up smartness(2023)Urban Studies, 60.0, 2 | |
| 38426
|
Agbali, M; Trillo, C; Ibrahim, IA; Arayici, Y; Fernando, T Are Smart Innovation Ecosystems Really Seeking to Meet Citizens' Needs? Insights from the Stakeholders' Vision on Smart City Strategy Implementation(2019)Smart Cities, 2, 2 |