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Scientific Article details

Title Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative
ID_Doc 37876
Authors Buck, NT; While, A
Title Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative
Year 2017
Published Urban Studies, 54, 2
DOI 10.1177/0042098015597162
Abstract The technological vision of smart urbanism has been promoted as a silver bullet for urban problems and a major market opportunity. The search is on for firms and governments to find effective and transferable demonstrations of advanced urban technology. This paper examines initiatives by the UK national government to facilitate urban technological innovation through a range of strategies, particularly the TSB Future Cities Demonstrator Competition. This case study is used to explore opportunities and tensions in the practical realisation of the smart city imaginary. Tensions are shown to be partly about the conjectural nature of the smart city debate. Attention is also drawn to weakened capacity of urban governments to control their infrastructural destiny and also constraints on the ability of the public and private sectors to innovate. The paper contributes to smart city debates by providing further evidence of the difficulties in substantiating the smart city imaginary.
Author Keywords capacity; competition; innovation; neoliberal urbanism; smart cities; UK
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000397164500011
WoS Category Environmental Studies; Urban Studies
Research Area Environmental Sciences & Ecology; Urban Studies
PDF https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0042098015597162
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