TY - BOOK

T1 - Not a dashboard, not a sandcastle

T2 - unpacking the smart city discourse

AU - Wang, Ding

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - While the idea of the ‘Smart City’ has attracted increasing attention from academia, industry,and government, this interest has largely had a technical and technological focus. This thesisexplores the notion of the smart city in several different but related fashions. I first reviewand unpack the current research and literature on the smart city, as part of a Foucauldianemphasis on the notion of ‘discourse’. My thesis then charts empirically some of the contoursof this current discourse through ethnographic interviews and a form of grounded analysis toascertain and identify some of the major themes and ideas. I then contribute to the currentdiscussion and debate regarding the smart city by introducing a novel Foucauldian theoreticalapproach to features of this discourse, as well as considering Foucauldian notions of ‘gaze’as applied to the smart city; and examining the extent to which the smart city might beconsidered as a Foucauldian ‘heterotopia’. I conclude the thesis with design implicationsin terms of knowledge production, civic engagement and policy potentials. Ultimately thisis an attempt to identify some of the important political and policy challenges facing theidea, the discourse, of a ‘smart city’ to optimise human computing interaction, computingsupported collaborative work and design research input into the ‘smart city’ debate. Inorder to develop an empirical basis for my research, I conducted ethnographic interviewswith both citizens from cities undergoing smart city transformation and experts who areeither leading or previously involved in these smart city developments. The citizens wereasked about their current experience with the cities they lived in, their understanding andexpectations of a smart city and what they envisioned for their cities. The experts were askedquestions regarding their prior experience with the “smart city”, their understandings ofwhat it means for a city to be ‘smart’, what policy potentials they’ve recognised in the smartcity, the implications smart cities have on democracy and finally the knowledge production,dissemination and sharing in the smart city. The thesis first follows a sociological, ‘grounded’thematic analysis of these interviews. It analyses and offers a synthesis of the responsescollected throughout the research with the current policies concerning various smart cityproximity, thereby providing a critical assessment of the values underlying the smart city. Ithen contrast this with a Foucauldian theoretical approach to analyse the discursive formationof the smart city, conceptualising the smart city as a heterotopia and then develop Foucault’s notion of ‘gaze’ to outline the different elements involved in what might be termed the‘smart city gaze’. In so doing I bring another critical approach to smart city discussion todemonstrate that the smart city concept is not a new novel approach to urban problems, it is acontinuation previous attempt to deploy information communication technology (ICT) incities with new add-ons such as data gathering, and internet of things features. In so doingI hope to highlight both the inherited issues facing such a technology deployment, such asdigital inclusion and piracy ,and relatively newer issues that comes with the new featuresof the technology in general but of the ‘smart city’ in particular– concerns, for example, ofthe surveillance features embedded in the data gathering and internet of things approachthat may both threaten privacy whilst providing for possibilities such as ‘designing out’crime, or encouraging civic engagement. The thesis accordingly concludes by exploring the‘implications for design’ and presents some of the policy possibilities for UK smart cities thatare potentially useful for politicians, policy makers, planners, academics, and technologycompanies. I believe that these perspectives for policy development can be used to informresponsible development, spatially and socially inclusive technologies, and ultimately moreresilient and liveable cities. The thesis is structured as follows: I begin by presenting theacademic context and political status quo for this research, followed by an overview of themethods I used during the project, highlighting some of the challenges I encountered whileapplying these methods. This is followed by a discussion of the research results, as well asthe implications of the results, and the limitations of the project. The thesis is concluded byoutlining questions that were left unanswered for further research.

AB - While the idea of the ‘Smart City’ has attracted increasing attention from academia, industry,and government, this interest has largely had a technical and technological focus. This thesisexplores the notion of the smart city in several different but related fashions. I first reviewand unpack the current research and literature on the smart city, as part of a Foucauldianemphasis on the notion of ‘discourse’. My thesis then charts empirically some of the contoursof this current discourse through ethnographic interviews and a form of grounded analysis toascertain and identify some of the major themes and ideas. I then contribute to the currentdiscussion and debate regarding the smart city by introducing a novel Foucauldian theoreticalapproach to features of this discourse, as well as considering Foucauldian notions of ‘gaze’as applied to the smart city; and examining the extent to which the smart city might beconsidered as a Foucauldian ‘heterotopia’. I conclude the thesis with design implicationsin terms of knowledge production, civic engagement and policy potentials. Ultimately thisis an attempt to identify some of the important political and policy challenges facing theidea, the discourse, of a ‘smart city’ to optimise human computing interaction, computingsupported collaborative work and design research input into the ‘smart city’ debate. Inorder to develop an empirical basis for my research, I conducted ethnographic interviewswith both citizens from cities undergoing smart city transformation and experts who areeither leading or previously involved in these smart city developments. The citizens wereasked about their current experience with the cities they lived in, their understanding andexpectations of a smart city and what they envisioned for their cities. The experts were askedquestions regarding their prior experience with the “smart city”, their understandings ofwhat it means for a city to be ‘smart’, what policy potentials they’ve recognised in the smartcity, the implications smart cities have on democracy and finally the knowledge production,dissemination and sharing in the smart city. The thesis first follows a sociological, ‘grounded’thematic analysis of these interviews. It analyses and offers a synthesis of the responsescollected throughout the research with the current policies concerning various smart cityproximity, thereby providing a critical assessment of the values underlying the smart city. Ithen contrast this with a Foucauldian theoretical approach to analyse the discursive formationof the smart city, conceptualising the smart city as a heterotopia and then develop Foucault’s notion of ‘gaze’ to outline the different elements involved in what might be termed the‘smart city gaze’. In so doing I bring another critical approach to smart city discussion todemonstrate that the smart city concept is not a new novel approach to urban problems, it is acontinuation previous attempt to deploy information communication technology (ICT) incities with new add-ons such as data gathering, and internet of things features. In so doingI hope to highlight both the inherited issues facing such a technology deployment, such asdigital inclusion and piracy ,and relatively newer issues that comes with the new featuresof the technology in general but of the ‘smart city’ in particular– concerns, for example, ofthe surveillance features embedded in the data gathering and internet of things approachthat may both threaten privacy whilst providing for possibilities such as ‘designing out’crime, or encouraging civic engagement. The thesis accordingly concludes by exploring the‘implications for design’ and presents some of the policy possibilities for UK smart cities thatare potentially useful for politicians, policy makers, planners, academics, and technologycompanies. I believe that these perspectives for policy development can be used to informresponsible development, spatially and socially inclusive technologies, and ultimately moreresilient and liveable cities. The thesis is structured as follows: I begin by presenting theacademic context and political status quo for this research, followed by an overview of themethods I used during the project, highlighting some of the challenges I encountered whileapplying these methods. This is followed by a discussion of the research results, as well asthe implications of the results, and the limitations of the project. The thesis is concluded byoutlining questions that were left unanswered for further research.

KW - Smart City

KW - Ethnography

KW - Foucauldian Approaches

U2 - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/342

DO - 10.17635/lancaster/thesis/342

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

PB - Lancaster University

ER -