Worlding and provincialising smart cities: From individual case studies to a global comparative research agenda

Byron Miller, Kevin Ward, Ryan Burns, Victoria Fast and Anthony Levenda
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Byron Miller: University of Calgary, Canada
Kevin Ward: University of Manchester, UK
Ryan Burns: University of Calgary, Canada
Victoria Fast: University of Calgary, Canada
Anthony Levenda: University of Oklahoma, USA

Urban Studies, 2021, vol. 58, issue 3, 655-673

Abstract: The diversity of smart city case studies presented in this special issue demonstrates the need for provincialised understandings of smart cities that account for cities’ worlding strategies. Case studies drawn from North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia show that ‘the smart city’ takes very diverse forms, serves very diverse objectives, and is embedded in complex power geometries that vary from city to city. Case studies are a critical strategy for understanding phenomena in context, yet they present their own epistemological and ontological limitations. We argue for a more-than-Global-North smart city research agenda focused on the comparative analysis of smart cities, an agenda that foregrounds the conjunctural geographies of relationships and processes shaping these cities.

Keywords: case studies; comparative analysis; epistemology; ontology; smart cities; æ¡ˆä¾‹ç ”ç©¶; 比较分æž; 认识论; 本体论; 智慧城市 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:3:p:655-673

DOI: 10.1177/0042098020976086

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