IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v58y2021i3p581-600.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From smart to rebel city? Worlding, provincialising and the Barcelona Model

Author

Listed:
  • Greig Charnock

    (The University of Manchester, UK)

  • Hug March

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)

  • Ramon Ribera-Fumaz

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the ‘Barcelona Model’ of urban transformation through the lenses of worlding and provincialising urbanism. We trace this evolution from an especially dogmatic worlding vision of the smart city, under a centre-right city council, to its radical repurposing under the auspices of a municipal government led, after May 2015, by the citizens’ platform Barcelona en Comú. We pay particular attention to the new council’s objectives to harness digital platform technologies to enhance participative democracy, and its agenda to secure technological sovereignty and digital rights for its citizens. While stressing the progressive intent of these aims, we also acknowledge the challenge of going beyond the repurposing of smart technologies so as to engender new and radical forms of subjectivity among citizens themselves; a necessary basis for any urban revolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Greig Charnock & Hug March & Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, 2021. "From smart to rebel city? Worlding, provincialising and the Barcelona Model," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 581-600, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:3:p:581-600
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019872119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019872119
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098019872119?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. Nicola Guarino & Daniel Oberle & Steffen Staab, 2009. "What Is an Ontology?," International Handbooks on Information Systems, in: Steffen Staab & Rudi Studer (ed.), Handbook on Ontologies, pages 1-17, Springer.
    2. Simon Joss & Matthew Cook & Youri Dayot, 2017. "Smart Cities: Towards a New Citizenship Regime? A Discourse Analysis of the British Smart City Standard," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 29-49, October.
    3. Tony Smith, 2010. "Technological change in Capitalism: some Marxian themes," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 34(1), pages 203-212, January.
    4. Maria Kaika, 2017. "Between compassion and racism: how the biopolitics of neoliberal welfare turns citizens into affective ‘idiots’," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(8), pages 1275-1291, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Simon Marvin & Andrés Luque-Ayala, 2017. "Urban Operating Systems: Diagramming the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 84-103, January.
    7. Greig Charnock & Thomas F. Purcell & Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, 2014. "City of Rents: The limits to the Barcelona model of urban competitiveness," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(1), pages 198-217, January.
    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. Ryan Burns & Victoria Fast & Anthony Levenda & Byron Miller, 2021. "Smart cities: Between worlding and provincialising," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 461-470, February.
    2. Matthew Cook & Andrew Karvonen, 2024. "Urban planning and the knowledge politics of the smart city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(2), pages 370-382, February.
    3. Yu-Shan Tseng & Christoph Becker & Ida Roikonen, 2024. "Dialectical approach to unpacking knowledge-making for digital urban democracy: A critical case of Helsinki-based e-participatory budgeting," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(1), pages 112-129, January.
    4. Clara Irazábal & Paola Jirón, 2021. "Latin American smart cities: Between worlding infatuation and crawling provincialising," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 507-534, February.
    5. Fernando Fernandez-Monge & Sarah Barns & Rainer Kattel & Francesca Bria, 2024. "Reclaiming data for improved city governance: Barcelona’s New Data Deal," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(7), pages 1291-1307, May.
    6. Aline Suter & Lars Kaiser & Martin Dušek & Florin Hasler & Simone Tappert, 2024. "Digital Rights to the City: Local Practices and Negotiations of Urban Space on Decidim," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9.
    7. Byron Miller & Kevin Ward & Ryan Burns & Victoria Fast & Anthony Levenda, 2021. "Worlding and provincialising smart cities: From individual case studies to a global comparative research agenda," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(3), pages 655-673, February.
    8. Romeo-Victor Ionescu & Monica Laura Zlati & Valentin-Marian Antohi, 2023. "Smart cities from low cost to expensive solutions under an optimal analysis," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-34, December.

    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. Johannes Stübinger & Lucas Schneider, 2020. "Understanding Smart City—A Data-Driven Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-23, October.
    2. 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.
    3. Daniel S. Oh, 2019. "Building Inter-Personal Competence in Architecture and Urban Design Students through Smart Cities at a Higher Education Institution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    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. Andrew Karvonen & Matthew Cook & Håvard Haarstad, 2020. "Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 65-68.
    6. Bernd W. Wirtz & Wilhelm M. Müller & Florian W. Schmidt, 2021. "Digital Public Services in Smart Cities – an Empirical Analysis of Lead User Preferences," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 299-315, June.
    7. Jalaluddin Abdul Malek & Seng Boon Lim & Tan Yigitcanlar, 2021. "Social Inclusion Indicators for Building Citizen-Centric Smart Cities: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, January.
    8. Bernd W. Wirtz & Marcel Becker & Florian W. Schmidt, 2022. "Smart city services: an empirical analysis of citizen preferences," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1063-1080, December.
    9. Andrew Karvonen & Matthew Cook & Håvard Haarstad, 2020. "Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 65-68.
    10. Constance Carr & Markus Hesse, 2020. "When Alphabet Inc. Plans Toronto’s Waterfront: New Post-Political Modes of Urban Governance," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 69-83.
    11. Aleksandra Kuzior & Aleksy Kwilinski & Ihor Hroznyi, 2021. "The Factorial-Reflexive Approach to Diagnosing the Executors’ and Contractors’ Attitude to Achieving the Objectives by Energy Supplying Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, April.
    12. Kummitha, Rama Krishna Reddy & Crutzen, Nathalie, 2019. "Smart cities and the citizen-driven internet of things: A qualitative inquiry into an emerging smart city," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 44-53.
    13. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko, 2016. "City-as-a-Platform: The Rise of Participatory Innovation Platforms in Finnish Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-31, September.
    14. Caprotti, Federico & Liu, Dong, 2020. "Emerging platform urbanism in China: Reconfigurations of data, citizenship and materialities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Hai Zhu & Xingsi Xue & Hongfeng Wang, 2022. "Matching Ontologies through Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm with Relevance Matrix," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-12, June.
    16. Brij B. Gupta & Akshat Gaurav & Prabin Kumar Panigrahi, 2023. "Analysis of the development of sustainable entrepreneurship practices through knowledge and smart innovative based education system," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 923-940, June.
    17. Yang, Zhen & Gao, Weijun & Han, Qing & Qi, Liyan, 2024. "Aggravating or alleviating? Smart city construction and urban inequality in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    18. Oleg Golubchikov & Mary J. Thornbush, 2022. "Smart Cities as Hybrid Spaces of Governance: Beyond the Hard/Soft Dichotomy in Cyber-Urbanization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-12, August.
    19. Renata Biadacz & Marek Biadacz, 2021. "Implementation of “Smart” Solutions and An Attempt to Measure Them: A Case Study of Czestochowa, Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-28, September.
    20. Antoine Guironnet, 2019. "Cities on the global real estate marketplace: urban development policy and the circulation of financial standards in two French localities," Post-Print halshs-02297204, HAL.

    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:3:p:581-600. 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.