IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v58y2021i16p3265-3281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The smart grid as a security device: Electricity infrastructure and urban governance in Kingston and Rio de Janeiro

Author

Listed:
  • Francesca Pilo’

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to recent debates on the politics of smart grids by exploring their installation in low-income areas in Kingston (Jamaica) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). To date, much of this debate has focused on forms of smart city experiments, mostly in the Global North, while less attention has been given to the implementation of smart grids in cities characterised by high levels of urban insecurity and socio-spatial inequality. This article illustrates how, in both contexts, the installation of smart metering is used as a security device that embeds the promise of protecting infrastructure and revenue and navigating complex relations framed along lines of socio-economic inequalities and urban sovereignty – here linked to configurations of state and non-state (criminal) territorial control and power. By unpacking the political workings of the smart grid within changing urban security contexts, including not only the rationalities that support its use but also the forms of resistance, contestation and socio-technical failure that emerge, the article argues for the importance of examining the conjunction between urban and infrastructural governance, including the reshaping of local power relations and spatial inequalities, through globally circulating devices.

Suggested Citation

  • Francesca Pilo’, 2021. "The smart grid as a security device: Electricity infrastructure and urban governance in Kingston and Rio de Janeiro," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(16), pages 3265-3281, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:16:p:3265-3281
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098020985711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098020985711
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098020985711?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. Idalina Baptista, 2015. "‘We Live on Estimates': Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 1004-1019, September.
    2. Francesca Pilo', 2017. "A Socio-Technical Perspective To The Right To The City: Regularizing Electricity Access in Rio de Janeiro's Favelas," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 396-413, May.
    3. Prince K Guma, 2019. "Smart urbanism? ICTs for water and electricity supply in Nairobi," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2333-2352, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Francesca Pilo', 2021. "Negotiating networked infrastructural inequalities: Governance, electricity access, and space in Rio de Janeiro," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 265-281, March.
    2. Prince K Guma, 2019. "Smart urbanism? ICTs for water and electricity supply in Nairobi," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2333-2352, August.
    3. Lejla H Pihljak & Maria Rusca & Cecilia Alda-Vidal & Klaas Schwartz, 2021. "Everyday practices in the production of uneven water pricing regimes in Lilongwe, Malawi," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 300-317, March.
    4. HÃ¥vard Haarstad & Rafael Rosales & Subina Shrestha, 2024. "Freight logistics and the city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(1), pages 3-19, January.
    5. Shaun Smith, 2019. "Hybrid networks, everyday life and social control: Electricity access in urban Kenya," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(6), pages 1250-1266, May.
    6. Nancy Odendaal, 2021. "Everyday urbanisms and the importance of place: Exploring the elements of the emancipatory smart city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 639-654, February.
    7. Afra Foli, 2023. "The heterogeneous politics of infrastructure: Claims of authority in Accra’s drainage," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(7), pages 1459-1473, November.
    8. Marcus Power & Joshua Kirshner, 2019. "Powering the state: The political geographies of electrification in Mozambique," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(3), pages 498-518, May.
    9. Joseph Chambers & James Evans, 2020. "Informal urbanism and the Internet of Things: Reliability, trust and the reconfiguration of infrastructure," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(14), pages 2918-2935, November.
    10. Rodrigo Castriota, 2024. "HOUSING BEYOND THE METROPOLIS: Inhabiting Extractivism and Extensions in Urban Amazonia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 32-52, January.
    11. Broto, Vanesa Castán, 2017. "Energy landscapes and urban trajectories towards sustainability," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 755-764.
    12. Solis, Miriam & Bashar, Samira Binte, 2022. "Social equity implications of advanced water metering infrastructure," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    13. Castán Broto, Vanesa & Baptista, Idalina & Kirshner, Joshua & Smith, Shaun & Neves Alves, Susana, 2018. "Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 645-655.
    14. Wong, Jason Chun Yu & Blankenship, Brian & Urpelainen, Johannes & Balani, Kanika & Ganesan, Karthik & Bharadwaj, Kapardhi, 2022. "Understanding electricity billing preferences in rural and urban India: Evidence from a conjoint experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Idalina Baptista, 2019. "Electricity services always in the making: Informality and the work of infrastructure maintenance and repair in an African city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(3), pages 510-525, February.
    16. Jacome, Veronica & Ray, Isha, 2018. "The prepaid electric meter: Rights, relationships and reification in Unguja, Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 262-272.
    17. Jochen Monstadt & Olivier Coutard, 2019. "Cities in an era of interfacing infrastructures: Politics and spatialities of the urban nexus," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2191-2206, August.
    18. Fenna Imara Hoefsloot & Javier Martínez & Christine Richter & Karin Pfeffer, 2020. "Expert-Amateurs and Smart Citizens: How Digitalization Reconfigures Lima’s Water Infrastructure," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 312-323.
    19. Fenna Imara Hoefsloot & Javier Martínez & Christine Richter & Karin Pfeffer, 2020. "Expert-Amateurs and Smart Citizens: How Digitalization Reconfigures Lima’s Water Infrastructure," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 312-323.
    20. Klug, Thomas W. & Beyene, Abebe D. & Meles, Tensay H. & Toman, Michael A. & Hassen, Sied & Hou, Michael & Klooss, Benjamin & Mekonnen, Alemu & Jeuland, Marc, 2022. "A review of impacts of electricity tariff reform in Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    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:58:y:2021:i:16:p:3265-3281. 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.