The Idea of Smartness and the Challenges of Networked Urban Governance
Document Type : Original Article
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Western Studies, Cultural and Social Research Institute, Institute of Islamic Culture and Thought, Tehran, I.R.Iran
Abstract
In recent years, the idea of the “smart city” has gained significant prominence in global policy-making discourses as a technological solution to governance crises and the realization of sustainable development. The present study aims to evaluate the capacity of the idea of smartness to address governance-related problems and examines the fundamental question of what discursive affinity links the idea of smartness to neoliberalism and to what extent it has succeeded as a model of governance in the digital age. This study adopts a critical approach and, through the methods of political economy critique and ideological critique, analyzes the underlying assumptions, discourses, and policies embedded within this idea. By focusing on the intersection of power, technology, and political economy, it examines its conceptual and practical contradictions and gaps. In the first section, the three dominant models of the urban future— the digital city, the entrepreneurial city, and the sustainable city—are examined, and the manner in which they converge within the neoliberal discourse of the smart city is analyzed; a discourse that reproduces unequal power relations through the depoliticization of urban development. Subsequently, five structural tensions between smartness and sustainability are examined: (1) unsustainable economic growth; (2) the unequal distribution of digital benefits; (3) the weakening of the political role of citizens; (4) the inefficiency of technology in environmental protection; and (5) the promotion of technological consumerism. The analysis of case studies indicates that most smart city projects, rather than pursuing social justice or environmental protection, seek to sustain the neoliberal logic of market-centeredness and optimization. The findings of the study indicate that although the smart city ostensibly presents an innovative and emancipatory agenda, in practice it is more closely aligned with neoliberal approaches to urban development. Accordingly, the future trajectory of the smart city lies in redefining the relationship between technology, politics, and the lifeworld.
Keywords
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