 The Smart City – Does the Individual Matter?Sandra Breux, Jérémy Diaz and Hugo Loiseau Journal of Urban Technology, 2023, vol. 30, issue 4, 33-49 Abstract: Early smart city projects tended to be technology-driven, conceiving of the citizen as a data provider. New citizen-centered projects have emerged that challenge the role of the individual in these second-generation smart cities. While some works describe the political role that individuals play in these cities, they only indirectly address the place of technology in determining the participation of the individual in these projects. In this article, we draw on the work done on another technical system—cyberspace—to address the relationship between individuals and technology in the smart city and its consequences. Adapting a typology initially developed for cyberspace and using examples of the City of Montréal, we identify three potential categories of the individual’s role within the smart city: (1) Active role (involved individual), (2) Passive role (synchronized individual), and (3) Victim (disadvantaged individual). We show that the individual is a misinformed figure, despite attempts to focus smart development on citizens. Moreover, we posit that the individual cannot have a real political role as long as the political vision of the city does not precede the technical dimension. Date: 2023 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cjutxx:v:30:y:2023:i:4:p:33-49 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2023.2194844 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Urban Technology is currently edited by Richard E. Hanley More articles in Journal of Urban Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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