The smart city and its publics: insights from across six UK cities

Cowley, R., Joss, S. and Dayot, Y. (2018) The smart city and its publics: insights from across six UK cities. Urban Research and Practice, 11(1), pp. 53-77. (doi: 10.1080/17535069.2017.1293150)

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Abstract

In response to policy-makers’ increasing claims to prioritise ‘people’ in smart city development, we explore the publicness of emerging practices across six UK cities: Bristol, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, and Peterborough. Local smart city programmes are analysed as techno-public assemblages invoking variegated modalities of publicness. Our findings challenge the dystopian speculative critiques of the smart city, while nevertheless indicating the dominance of ‘entrepreneurial’ and ‘service user’ modes of the public. We highlight the risk of bifurcation within smart city assemblages, such that the ‘civic’ and ‘political’ roles of the public become siloed into less obdurate strands of programmatic activity.

Item Type:Articles
Additional Information:This study was undertaken at the University of Westminster, as part of the ESRC-funded project ‘Smart Eco-cities for a Green Economy: a Comparative Study of Europe and China’(grant ES/ L015978/1).
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Joss, Professor Simon
Authors: Cowley, R., Joss, S., and Dayot, Y.
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
Journal Name:Urban Research and Practice
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1753-5069
ISSN (Online):1753-5077
Published Online:07 March 2017
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2017 The Authors
First Published:First published in Urban Research and Practice 11(1): 53-77
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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