CORP – Competence Center of Urban and Regional Planning
Abstract
This paper builds on the one towards CORP 2104 'Plan it Smart' which attempted to define 'smart cities' for the purpose of planning and against other city typologies. It concentrates on how ICT or 'smart technology' is applied in cities and discusses its critiques. It explores who benefits from 'smart' interventions: the ICT industry, governments or the users and whether there are inherent contradictions between top down and bottom up urban interventions. It explores the preconditions of improving living conditions for all by 'smart' technologies, including the role of discourse analysis, and raises issues of equity and social justice. Lastly, the paper discusses Hajer's alternative of 'smart urbanism' expressed in his agenda for planning and design in 'Smart about cities' and concludes that the growth ideology still prevails despite promising excursions into decoupling it from urban resources
