In the contemporary moment, smart cities have become the dominant
paradigm for urban planning and administration, weaving the urban fabric
with digital technologies. Recently, however, the promises of smart
cities have been gradually supplanted by recognition of their inherent
inequalities, and scholars are increasingly working to envision
alternative smart cities.
Informed by these pressing challenges, Digital (In)justice in the Smart
City foregrounds discussions of how we should think of and work toward
urban digital justice in the smart city. It provides a deep exploration
of the sources of injustice that percolate throughout a range of
sociotechnical assemblages, and it questions whether working toward more
just, sustainable, livable, and egalitarian cities requires that we look
beyond the limitations of smartness altogether. The book grapples with
how geographies impact smart city visions and roll-outs, on one hand,
and how (unjust) geographies are produced in smart pursuits, on the
other. Ultimately, Digital (In)justice in the Smart City envisions
alternative cities - smart or merely digital - and outlines the sorts of
roles that the commons, utopia, and the law might take on in our
conceptions and realizations of better cities.