STEPHEN R. BARNARD
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • In the News
  • Blog
  • Contact

What is a 'Smart City'?

12/22/2014

0 Comments

 
A colleague recently sent me a Guardian article entitled The smartest cities rely on citizen cunning and unglamorous technology by written Adam Greenfield as a part of the "Resilient Cities" project.  It's a great read, and although it it would have been great fodder for my New Media, Conflict, and Control class this semester, I will certainly put it on the reading list next time around. 

The examples are great, and the argument falls squarely in line with what many who study technology and society already know: that fetishizing the newest technologies will be more likely to reproduce than rectify social inequalities.  Furthermore, techno-utopian logics are far too aligned with the interests of Silicon Valley capitalists than of average citizens.  We would be much better off building things--whether they be spaces, devices, communication systems, or even social policies, for that matter--with an eye toward accessibility and inclusivity.  The more I think about it, a true democratic ethos would be less “if you build it, they will come” and more “give people space, allow them access to resources, and you will see the true meaning of a ‘smart city’”…or something like that. 



0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    August 2020
    February 2020
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2017
    March 2017
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @socsavvy
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • In the News
  • Blog
  • Contact