Weaving the web of who’s responsible for the smart city

Keywords: smart city, digital justice, qualitative case studies, comparative urbanism
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Fraser (2005) sets up a distinctive shape to arguments about social justice that interrogates who is responsible for claims of injustice. Injustice, in particular, because she articulates, elsewhere (Fraser 2012), that justice is hard to recognize and often comes from a place of privilege. Injustices, on the other hand, are more likely to stand out. When it comes to the smart city, injustices certainly prevail. From surveillance capitalism, privatized urban planning, and inadequate legal oversight, critical smart city scholars have documented the profound impact these digital technologies are having on socially just urban futures (Mackinnon, Burns and Fast 2023; Rosol and Blue 2022).

Through a 2-year international comparative research project involving qualitative case study work in 7 cities (Barcelona, Calgary, Seoul, Singapore, Stockholm, Taipei, and Toronto), we interrogate deeper into who’s responsible for the smart city. Interviews with over 320 regional decision makers and local actors who are involved in smart city projects wove an intricate web of who’s responsible for the smart city. Here, we map the corporate, state, civic, citizen, research, and community interests responsible for smart city plans, visions, and implementation. This web begins to reveal the political, societal, economic, and cultural arrangements that can redress digital injustices, such as employing better infrastructures of care provided through actors such as libraries.