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.

About: This article is published in Cities.The article was published on 2017-09-01 and is currently open access. It has received 218 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Smart city & Urban planning.

Summary

2. Utopia and the neoliberal ideology

• The word utopia is from the Greek οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place "), and it refers to an imaginary perfect place.
• Utopia refers to this imaginary capacity that guides man’s actions and aspirations.
• On one hand, the advocates of this paradigm (public, private and not-for profit actors) describe the smart city as “a concrete utopia in an urban space at human scale” (Genoa Smart City Association, GSCA).
• According to the critical scholars of the neoliberal ideology (Brenner and Theodore, 2002a; GuarnerosMeza and Geddes, 2010), there is an increasing concentration of urban power in the hands of a few political and business elites in European cities (Blanco, 2015, 124).
• Method and methodology Building on Habermas (1971), this study proposes critical hermeneutics as a valuable methodology for unmasking ideology.

4. The neoliberal ideology behind utopia: the Genoa case.

• Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is the largest seaport in Italy and one of the European biggest city in the Mediterranean.
• The hydrogeological is one of the major themes [hemes [themes that if there were technologies such as sensors or communication with citizens via smartphones…the authors could have avoided the victims.
• The Genoa case shows how “the current dominance of supply-driven smart city solutions often results in smart city strategies that are disconnected from their social context and fail to tackle a city’s problems in a cohesive way” (Angelidou, 2015, 104).

5. Conclusions

• This study started with the analysis of the existing definitions of the smart city concept.
• Hackworth, J. (2007), The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.

Figures

Fig. 1: Final stretch of the Bisagno stream at the beginning of the 19th century (left panel) and in the present day (right panel). Source: Faccini et al. (2015)

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

This paper develops a critical understanding of the smart city by investigating the values and ideas that underpin this concept and how they are translated into practice. The study suggests that this business-led utopia has important implications in terms of accountability of the actors involved. It suggests that, despite private companies and municipalities promoting the smart city as a revolutionary utopia, this utopia is, on the contrary, an expression of the neoliberal ideology. 

Q2. What are the future works in this paper?

Thus, this utopia would combine the aspirations of two alternative models, the progressist, “ looking to the future and inspired by a vision of social progress ” and the culturalist, “ nostalgic in outlook [ and ] inspired by the vision of a cultural community ” ( Choay, 1969, 31 ). On the contrary, the authors believe that citizens can play a more active role not only in shaping the characteristics of this utopia, but also in providing ideas for technological innovation, through civic hacking initiatives, and bringing about alternative forms of citizens participation and engagement ( Vanolo, 2016 ; Granier and Kudo, 2016 ; Capra, 2016 ). The contingent and temporary character of these initiatives risks to jeopardize their democratic potential participants, skills, expectations and technologies ” ( Perng and Kitchin, 2015, 14 ) and “ a commitment to establishing the contextual effectiveness of a solution ” ( Perng and Kitchin, 2015, 14 ) are necessary conditions for the development of a democratic-inspired utopia. As Crossley ( 2004, 89 ) noted, “ the public sphere is one place where the authors can make a strong claim for the necessity of undistorted communication. ” This process involves the development of “ counterpublics ” ( Asen, 2000, 424 ; Fraser, 1990 ), discursive arenas where “ emergent collectives ” ( Asen, 2000, 438 ) formulate alternative discourses and norms to reconfigure existing systems of power ; hence, the necessity of overcoming the idea of a monolithic public sphere by recognizing and fostering a multiplicity of public spheres. 

Q3. What is the global smart city technology market worth?

The global smart city technology market is expected to be worth more than $27.5 billion annually by 2023, compared to $8.8 billion in 2014 (Woods and Gartner, 2013). 

Q4. What is the role of competitiveness in the neoliberal ideology?

The value of competitiveness, and the related managerial tool of performance measurement, play a fundamental role in the neoliberal ideology (Kornberger and Carter, 2010; Santangelo, 2016), thus becoming a constitutive element of the smart city utopia. 

Q5. What is the role of the European financial resources in the smart city utopia?

The availability of European financial resources earmarked for smart cities projects strongly impacts the allocation policies of cities hit by the economic crisis (Cocchia, 2014) and expose them to international competition. 

Q6. What is the role of the municipality in the development of the city of the future?

In line with national and international directives on city planning, the governance of GSCA shows the ascent of new actors (the new dominant class) in charge of developing the city of the future, the smart city utopia. 

Q7. What are the three constitutive elements of the smart city?

Meijer and Bolívar (2015) identify three constitutive elements of the smart city: smart technology, smart people and smart collaboration. 

Q8. What is the role of language in the neoliberal ideology?

language can be partaken of or used by institutional power to dominate:Language is also a medium of domination and social force. 

Q9. What is the purpose of this paper?

This paper focuses on the ways in which the assumptions underpinning the neoliberal ideology have influenced the formulation of the smart city utopia and its translation into practice. 

Q10. What is the role of city leaders in the pursuit of the status of smart city?

Given their great influence on public policies, “city leaders are also accountable and should be held accountable in the pursuit of the status of ‘smart city” (Glasmeier and Christopherson, 2015, 10). 

Q11. What is the meaning of the term smart city utopia?

This paper suggests that the smart city utopia is a fundamental facet of the neoliberal contemporary ideology (Kornberger and Carter, 2010; Hackworth, 2007). 

Q12. What is the definition of the future city?

In addition, the contemporary face of ideology that sees this growing involvement of private actors in the development of public policies creates more than a few problems in terms of democratic participation to the definition of the future city and public accountability (Smyth, 2012; Bovens, 2007). 

Q13. What is the definition of a utopia?

A concrete utopia should not result from a top-down imposition of “grand utopian visions of the ‘good’ city and ‘good’ citizenship” (Amin and Graham, 2004, 423), but from a democratic debate about public interest and from the development of a public space where citizens can share more than individual preferences and utility (Malsch and Paracini, 2013). 

Q14. What are the steps cities can take to achieve the benefits of a smart city?

the impact of the smart city is often expressed in monetary terms:“A ‘smarter’ country is worth up to 10 points in GDP annually.” (ABB, 2012)There are clear steps that cities can take, such as getting assistance in leading projects, improving planning, and achieving a better understanding of the cost and benefits of a smart city.