| Abstract |
Smart Cities have been positioned as a global digital paradigm addressing challenges in urban service delivery and governance. Recent debates have suggested the possibility of localized forms of smart intervention, however, we argue there is a need to first analyze the entanglement of actors through which urban narratives must pass. A granular examination of three small, "smart" cities within India's Smart City Mission reveals structures and storylines produced at the intersection of transnational, national and local stakeholders, complicating attempts to unravel the "local" and "global". State narratives reproduce a "smart" subject as part of "modern", global, nation-building, demarcating who does and doesn't belong in cities yet-to-come. Municipalities mediate between transnational narratives and local needs, but localization has become primarily a means to create a distinction within inter-city competition. Therefore, while local activism can function as a node of resistance to Smart City redevelopment, vulnerable city residents remain precariously placed. |