Multiple Smart Cities: The Case of the Eco Delta City in South Korea

Abstract

This paper follows the urban development process of the Eco Delta City (EDC) in South Korea, a new waterfront development demonstrating the concept of a smart city. The investigation focuses on the mobilisation process under the framework of assemblage thinking: the way in which the smart city concept was applied to the project and the relational moments that delayed and stopped the process. This qualitative research with the case study and ethnographical tradition of analysis was conducted with data from diverse archival sources and interviews. By dissecting the network of EDC development, the analysis finds that the smart city mobilisation emerged from the complex actor-relations rather than from the top-down policy, and the initially brought smartness framed by the government was not accepted intactly but was contested, affiliated and compounded by the actor-relations. This study also verifies that the assemblage approach is a suitable tool in managing and evaluating policy mobilisation because it is affected by the local context and actor-relations rather than just imitation and direct application.