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Journal ArticleDOI

IBM's smart city as techno-utopian policy mobility

Alan Wiig
- 01 Apr 2015 - 
- Vol. 19, pp 258-273
TLDR
In this paper, the authors explore IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge as an example of global smart city policymaking, and present a case study of Philadelphia's online workforce education initiative, Digital On-Ramps.
Abstract
This paper explores IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge as an example of global smart city policymaking. The evolution of IBM's smart city thinking is discussed, then a case study of Philadelphia's online workforce education initiative, Digital On-Ramps, is presented as an example of IBM's consulting services. Philadelphia's rationale for working with IBM and the translation of IBM's ideas into locally adapted initiatives is considered. The paper argues that critical scholarship on the smart city over-emphasizes IBM's agency in driving the discourse. Unpacking how and why cities enrolled in smart city policymaking with IBM places city governments as key actors advancing the smart city paradigm. Two points are made about the policy mobility of the smart city as a mask for entrepreneurial governance. (1) Smart city efforts are best understood as examples of outward-looking policy promotion for the globalized economy. (2) These policies proposed citywide benefit through a variety of digital governance augmentatio...

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Can cities become smart without being sustainable? A systematic review of the literature

TL;DR: In this article, a systematic review of the smart and sustainable cities literature is presented, which highlights the need for a post-anthropocentric approach in practice and policymaking for the development of truly smart cities.
Journal ArticleDOI

Understanding 'smart cities': Intertwining development drivers with desired outcomes in a multidimensional framework

TL;DR: In this paper, a systematic review of the literature on smart cities, focusing on those aimed at conceptual development and providing empirical evidence base, is presented, where the authors identify three types of drivers of smart cities: community, technology, and policy.
Journal ArticleDOI

Smart and sustainable? : Five tensions in the visions and practices of the smart-sustainable city in Europe and North America

TL;DR: In this article, the authors advocate the use of smart cities as the primary means to deliver urban sustainability, particularly in Europe and North America, where smart cities are increasingly advocated by governments and the private sector.
Journal ArticleDOI

Internet of Things: applications and challenges in smart cities: A case study of IBM smart city projects

TL;DR: An empirical testing on IBM Smart Cities projects was applied to demonstrate that the combination between the use of IoT and the implementation of the Open Innovation model within smart cities which has been changed the development of urban areas and effected firms’ innovativeness.
Journal ArticleDOI

Smart cities: Utopia or neoliberal ideology?

TL;DR: In this article, a case study of the Italian city of Genoa shows that the smart city utopia acts as a generator of a collective imaginary while promoting the interests of business elites and diverting the attention away from urgent urban problems, such as urbanization.
References
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Book

The rise of the network society

TL;DR: The Rise of the Network Society as discussed by the authors is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information, which is based on research in the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, it aims to formulate a systematic theory of the information society which takes account of fundamental effects of information technology on the contemporary world.
Book

The Global City

Saskia Sassen
Journal ArticleDOI

Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a scientific and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population.

Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay

Michel Callon
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a scientific and economic controversy about the causes for the decline in the population of scallops in St. Brieuc Bay and the attempts by three marine biologists to develop a conservation strategy for that population.