 Spaces of visibility in the smart city: Flagship urban spaces and the smart urban imaginaryUrban Studies, 2019, vol. 56, issue 12, 2465-2479 Abstract: Smart urbanism is a currently popular and widespread way of conceptualising the future city. At the same time, the smart city is critiqued by several scholars as difficult to define, and as being almost invisible to the naked eye. The article explores two urban spaces through which the smart city is rendered visible, in two UK cities that are prominent sites for smart urban experimentation and development. Bristol’s Data Dome and Glasgow’s Operations Centre are analysed in light of their iconic nature. The article develops a conceptual understanding of these flagship spaces of the actually existing smart cities through three interrelated conceptual lenses. Firstly, they are understood as a videological type of Leibniz’s concept of the windowless monad. Secondly, they are conceptualised as examples of banal and serialised architecture. Thirdly, these spaces and their attendant buildings are understood as totemic assemblages that point to newly emergent forms of elite urban power. Keywords: agglomeration/urbanisation; built environment; public space; technology/smart cities; urban imaginary; é›†è š/城市化; 建ç‘环境; 公共空间; 技术/智慧城市; 城市想象 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:12:p:2465-2479 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited |
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