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‘Smart cities’ is a term that has gained
traction in academia, business and government to
describe cities that, on the one hand, are increasingly
composed of and monitored by pervasive and ubiquitous
computing and, on the other, whose economy and
governance is being driven by innovation, creativity
and entrepreneurship, enacted by smart people. This
paper focuses on the former and, drawing on a number
of examples, details how cities are being instrumented
with digital devices and infrastructure that produce
‘big data’. Such data, smart city advocates argue
enables real-time analysis of city life, new modes of
urban governance, and provides the raw material for
envisioning and enacting more efficient, sustainable,
competitive, productive, open and transparent cities.
The final section of the paper provides a critical
reflection on the implications of big data and smart
urbanism, examining five emerging concerns: the
politics of big urban data, technocratic governance and
city develop...
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