Locating and Enacting Smart Cities: Multi-sited Ethnography and Translation of Imaginaries

• In Event: Innovating, Interrupting & Regenerating the Human-Technology Frontier - II

Abstract

What are the local contingencies and global interconnections that shape sociotechnical imaginaries and enactment of smart cities.? This paper contains preliminary work that draws upon insights from multi-sited ethnography and conceptual orientation for tracking imaginaries across urban spaces. We attempt to locate visions of and enactment of “smart” across several scales while sharing our insights as we conduct field work in China, Northern Eastern Africa and the U.S. In this essay, I compare two U.S. cities, Kansas City and New York City, as different stakeholders harness visions of (dis/u)topias, deconstructing citiscapes, and overcoming injustices. Transitioning across scales locates smart city imaginaries forming among communities, coalescing into local and global strategies, and translating among geographically distant but spatially linked actors.

Author

• Sean Ferguson, Engineering and Society, University of Virginia