The Right to the Smart City

Cities around the world are pursuing a smart cities agenda, but there is a need for more citizen-centric and bottom-up approaches. This book explores the ethical implications of smart city systems and questions whether the need for order and capital and property rights trump individual and collective liberty. It considers what kind of smart city individuals want to create and how to create the most sustainable smart urban landscape.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 232 pages
Publication date: 05 September 2022
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited

Cities worldwide are actively pursuing a smart cities agenda, driven by governments and corporations implementing various forms of top-down, technocratic governance and reproducing neoliberal governmentality. While there are calls for a more citizen-centric and bottom-up approach to the smart city agenda, the translation of these ideals into policy and initiatives remains weakly articulated and practiced. Meaningful engagement by key stakeholders regarding rights, citizenship, social justice, commoning, civic participation, co-creation, and the potential reimagining and remaking of the smart city remains limited.

This book aims to address this gap by offering critical reflection on the possibility of another smart city and exploring themes such as the framing of citizens within these systems, the ethical implications of smart city technologies, and the potential for injustices to be embedded in city systems, infrastructures, services, and their calculative practices. Contributors question whether the need for order and the priorities of capital and property rights outweigh individual and collective liberty. Ultimately, the book considers what kind of smart city individuals want to create and how to create the most sustainable smart urban landscape.

Cities worldwide are actively pursuing a smart cities agenda, driven by governments and corporations implementing various forms of top-down, technocratic governance and reproducing neoliberal governmentality. While there are calls for a more citizen-centric and bottom-up approach to the smart city agenda, the translation of these ideals into policy and initiatives remains weakly articulated and practiced. Meaningful engagement by key stakeholders regarding rights, citizenship, social justice, commoning, civic participation, co-creation, and the potential reimagining and remaking of the smart city remains limited.

This book aims to address this gap by offering critical reflection on the possibility of another smart city and exploring themes such as the framing of citizens within these systems, the ethical implications of smart city technologies, and the potential for injustices to be embedded in city systems, infrastructures, services, and their calculative practices. Contributors question whether the need for order and the priorities of capital and property rights outweigh individual and collective liberty. Ultimately, the book considers what kind of smart city individuals want to create and how to create the most sustainable smart urban landscape.

Weight: 346g
Dimension: 151 x 228 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781787691421