de Hoop Smith et al 2019 CPH Knowing paper_Final.pdf (282.77 kB)
Download fileSmart urbanism in Barcelona: a knowledge-politics perspective
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posted on 2023-06-09, 15:54 authored by Evelein de Hoop, Adrian SmithAdrian Smith, Wouter Boon, Rachel Macrorie, Simon Marvin, Rob RavenThere is a risk in the ‘Smart City’ that plural forms of knowing the city become eclipsed by singular governance-oriented analyses produced through computational logics originating from undemocratic service providers. In light of this concern, this chapter considers three aspects of smart urbanism’s knowledge politics: i) the role of urban agencies – or understanding smart urbanism as a situated, socio-material practice; ii) the agency of smart city technologies’ materiality as well as the ownership and control of these technologies, and: iii) the political rationalities, values and assumptions embedded in smart city technologies’ design and use. Drawing on these insights, this chapter analyses smart knowledge politics in Barcelona, where the 2015 Council elections replaced a market-oriented political leadership enthusiastically implementing the Smart City with a political leadership whose origins in social 1 movements and citizen democracy made it deeply sceptical towards smart urbanism. We analyse how this opened up space for different approaches to using technology in the city while at the same time giving rise to materially very different kinds of smart knowledge configuring technologies emphasizing citizen participation and democratic control of knowledge production. Indeed, political rationalities and smart knowledge configuring technologies intersected and co-evolved, rather than one informing the other unidirectionally.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Publisher
RoutledgePage range
33-52Pages
182.0Book title
The politics of urban sustainability transitions: knowledge, power and governancePlace of publication
OxonISBN
9781138479654Series
Routledge Research in Sustainable UrbanismDepartment affiliated with
- SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes