IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v56y2019i12p2465-2479.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spaces of visibility in the smart city: Flagship urban spaces and the smart urban imaginary

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Caprotti

Abstract

Smart urbanism is a currently popular and widespread way of conceptualising the future city. At the same time, the smart city is critiqued by several scholars as difficult to define, and as being almost invisible to the naked eye. The article explores two urban spaces through which the smart city is rendered visible, in two UK cities that are prominent sites for smart urban experimentation and development. Bristol’s Data Dome and Glasgow’s Operations Centre are analysed in light of their iconic nature. The article develops a conceptual understanding of these flagship spaces of the actually existing smart cities through three interrelated conceptual lenses. Firstly, they are understood as a videological type of Leibniz’s concept of the windowless monad. Secondly, they are conceptualised as examples of banal and serialised architecture. Thirdly, these spaces and their attendant buildings are understood as totemic assemblages that point to newly emergent forms of elite urban power.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Caprotti, 2019. "Spaces of visibility in the smart city: Flagship urban spaces and the smart urban imaginary," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(12), pages 2465-2479, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:12:p:2465-2479
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098018798597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018798597
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098018798597?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Flusty, 2001. "The Banality of Interdiction: Surveillance, Control and the Displacement of Diversity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 658-664, September.
    2. Tim Simpson, 2014. "Macau Metropolis and Mental Life: Interior Urbanism and the Chinese Imaginary," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 823-842, May.
    3. Jennifer Robinson, 2016. "Comparative Urbanism: New Geographies and Cultures of Theorizing the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 187-199, January.
    4. Rob Kitchin, 2015. "Making sense of smart cities: addressing present shortcomings," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 131-136.
    5. I-Chun Catherine Chang & Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2016. "A Green Leap Forward? Eco-State Restructuring and the Tianjin-Binhai Eco-City Model," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(6), pages 929-943, June.
    6. Robert Goodspeed, 2015. "Smart cities: moving beyond urban cybernetics to tackle wicked problems," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 79-92.
    7. Ola Söderström & Till Paasche & Francisco Klauser, 2014. "Smart cities as corporate storytelling," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 307-320, June.
    8. Leslie Sklair & Laura Gherardi, 2012. "Iconic architecture as a hegemonic project of the transnational capitalist class," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1-2), pages 57-73, April.
    9. Robert G. Hollands, 2015. "Critical interventions into the corporate smart city," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 61-77.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paola Panuccio, 2019. "Smart Planning: From City to Territorial System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Negar Noori & Thomas Hoppe & Martin de Jong, 2020. "Classifying Pathways for Smart City Development: Comparing Design, Governance and Implementation in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-24, May.
    3. Inge Goudsmit & Maria Kaika & Nanke Verloo, 2024. "A performing arts centre for whom? Rethinking the architect as negotiator of urban imaginaries," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(2), pages 350-369, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Trencher, Gregory, 2019. "Towards the smart city 2.0: Empirical evidence of using smartness as a tool for tackling social challenges," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 117-128.
    2. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy, 2019. "Smart cities and entrepreneurship: An agenda for future research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    3. Huaxiong Jiang & Stan Geertman & Patrick Witte, 2020. "Avoiding the planning support system pitfalls? What smart governance can learn from the planning support system implementation gap," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 47(8), pages 1343-1360, October.
    4. Stephen Leitheiser & Alexander Follmann, 2020. "The social innovation–(re)politicisation nexus: Unlocking the political in actually existing smart city campaigns? The case of SmartCity Cologne, Germany," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(4), pages 894-915, March.
    5. Adrian Buttazzoni & Marta Veenhof & Leia Minaker, 2020. "Smart City and High-Tech Urban Interventions Targeting Human Health: An Equity-Focused Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Mora, Luca & Deakin, Mark & Reid, Alasdair, 2019. "Strategic principles for smart city development: A multiple case study analysis of European best practices," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 70-97.
    7. Munan Li, 2019. "Visualizing the studies on smart cities in the past two decades: a two-dimensional perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(2), pages 683-705, August.
    8. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    9. Amy Glasmeier & Susan Christopherson, 2015. "Thinking about smart cities," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 3-12.
    10. Jun Zhang & Shuyang Li & Yichuan Wang, 2023. "Shaping a Smart Transportation System for Sustainable Value Co-Creation," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 365-380, February.
    11. Schiavone, Francesco & Paolone, Francesco & Mancini, Daniela, 2019. "Business model innovation for urban smartization," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 210-219.
    12. Ezra Ho, 2017. "Smart subjects for a Smart Nation? Governing (smart)mentalities in Singapore," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(13), pages 3101-3118, October.
    13. Yigitcanlar, Tan & Kamruzzaman, Md., 2018. "Does smart city policy lead to sustainability of cities?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 49-58.
    14. Bipashyee Ghosh & Saurabh Arora, 2022. "Smart as (un)democratic? The making of a smart city imaginary in Kolkata, India," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(1), pages 318-339, February.
    15. Malene Freudendal-Pedersen & Sven Kesselring & Eriketti Servou, 2019. "What is Smart for the Future City? Mobilities and Automation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.
    16. Harriet Bulkeley & Pauline M McGuirk & Robyn Dowling, 2016. "Making a smart city for the smart grid? The urban material politics of actualising smart electricity networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(9), pages 1709-1726, September.
    17. Mikołaj Biesaga & Anna Domaradzka & Magdalena Roszczyńska-Kurasińska & Szymon Talaga & Andrzej Nowak, 2023. "The effect of the pandemic on European narratives on smart cities and surveillance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(10), pages 1894-1914, August.
    18. Miltiadis D. Lytras & Anna Visvizi & Akila Sarirete, 2019. "Clustering Smart City Services: Perceptions, Expectations, Responses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, March.
    19. Lim Seng BOON & Jalaluddin Abdul MALEK & Mohd Yusof HUSSAIN & Zurinah TAHIR, 2020. "Understanding the trends and characteristics of smart urbanism across continents," Smart Cities and Regional Development (SCRD) Journal, Smart-EDU Hub, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies & Public Administration, vol. 4(1), pages 23-35, March.
    20. Monique Mann & Peta Mitchell & Marcus Foth & Irina Anastasiu, 2020. "#BlockSidewalk to Barcelona: Technological sovereignty and the social license to operate smart cities," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(9), pages 1103-1115, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:12:p:2465-2479. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.