PROVINCIALISING

SMART CITIES

PROVINCIALISING

THE GLOBAL URBAN AGE

IN INDIA & SOUTH AFRICA

A three year international research collaboration between University of Neuchâtel and University College London on Indian and South African smart cities. Through a comparative study of smart cities in these two countries, this project will research globally circulating urban development narratives around ICT and data-driven urbanism, its ‘mutations’ in different urban contexts and ‘urban hacking’ at the scale of everyday life...

Swiss National Science Foundation

PROJECT TEAM

MORE ABOUT THE TEAM

OUR WORK

PROF. OLA SÖDERSTRÖM

University of Neuchâtel,

Switzerland

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

PROF. AYONA DATTA

University College London,
United Kingdom

CO-INVESTIGATOR

DR. NANCY ODENDAAL

University of Cape Town,
South Africa

LOCAL ACADEMIC PARTNER

DR. DIGANTA DAS

Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore

LOCAL ACADEMIC PARTNER

Discursive engineering and agenda setting in the South African smart city.

In South Africa, international and national ICT-based developmentalist strategies have driven smart city-like municipal initiatives since the early 2000s. Drawing on an on-going research project on the provincialisation of the smart city narrative in India and South Africa, this paper first looks at the differences and convergences between the rolling-out of smart cityness in South Africa since 2000. Using a media analysis, it compares the geohistory of the phenomenon and the role therein of discursive engineering. We then focus on the South African case to discuss shifting agenda setting and various modes of existence of smart cityness in three different municipalities. Finally, we look at the role of social movements in shaping South African smart urbanisms.

4S 2019 NEW ORLEANS

BUYING INTO THE SMART CITY NARRATIVE

2019

VIEW THE PRESENTATION

INFO

Université de Neuchâtel

Institut de géographie

Espace Tilo-Frey 1

CH-2000

Neuchâtel