Everyday urbanisms and the importance of place: Exploring the elements of the emancipatory smart city

Abstract

Two of the most striking features of smart city discourses are the centrality of technology as a driver of transformational change and the strange ‘placelessness’ of its visual narrative. Whether envisaged in Kenya or Singapore, the commercial smart city is represented as a ‘city in a box’, seemingly capable of solving complex social issues through algorithms and technical innovation. Recently a robust literature has emerged that is critical of the techno-determinism inherent in smart city discussions. This paper expands on this critique by arguing that by solely focusing on the material dimensions of technologically informed urban change, devoid of context, we miss an opportunity to uncover an important moment in contemporary urbanity. By foregrounding the human dimensions of technology appropriation and the interface with livelihoods in their particular spatial contexts, this paper consciously decentres the dominant smart city discourse by arguing for the foregrounding of local dynamics. This paper rejects the universalisms embedded in smart city promises and argues that by provincialising the idea of smart urbanism, opportunities are presented for understanding the true markers of contemporary urbanism. Critical debates on the smart city, and by extension the need to consider smart urbanism contextually and as an infrastructure, relationally, together with the conceptual insights provided by postcolonial science and technology studies, contribute to a proposed frame for researching the ongoing dynamic between contemporary urban life and technological innovation. Empirical vignettes from urban Africa are used to illustrate the multiple dimensions of the interface between livelihoods and technology appropriation.

Smart cities: Between worlding and provincialising

“…What is provincial in contemporary Dubai is the sheer pervasiveness of its neoliberal order, enforced through smart surveillance techniques. Conversely, Odendaal (2021) foregrounds local dynamics and place-specific characteristics in her account of two social movements based in Nairobi and Cape Town. In Nairobi, the MapKibera initiative uses online and analogue geographic documentation to improve slum conditions and visibility.…”

“…While the Barcelona model of grassroots city-building holds significant promise, they argue that scholars must retain a critical eye towards the city’s smart projects, and in particular their claims to monist epistemologies to enable a right to the smart city. Similarly, Odendaal (2021) shows how social movements can re-orient and co-opt smart technologies for their own political and social progress. The opportunity presented in this context is one that can provide broader lessons about the potential for smart city technologies to be used for, and embedded with, social justice goals.…”

Smart as (un)democratic? The making of a smart city imaginary in Kolkata, India

“…The move to people-centred smart cities is seen as challenging the 'strange placelessness' of smart city imaginaries that promote the same 'solutions' everywhere, from Singapore to Nairobi and beyond (Odendaal, 2021). People-centred smartness then means redirecting attention to place-based complexity of social and ecological problems and of wider range of actors working to address the problems (Bakıcı et al, 2013).…”

Exploring Sustainable Urban Transformation Concepts for Economic Development

“…While many authors are keen to explore the technological aspects of the urban transformation, the human factors cannot be neglected [28,29]. Odendaal [30] argues that the sole focus on the technological side does not allow a broader context in the "contemporary urbanity" and should assume the societal dimension, local dynamics and specifics of particular neighbourhoods of urban settlements.…”