Abstract
This communication explores the unique challenge of contemporary urban problems and the technologies that vendors have to solve them. An acknowledged gap exists between widely referenced technologies that city managers utilize to optimize scheduled operations and those that reflect the capability of spontaneity in search of nuance–laden solutions to problems related to the reflexivity of entire systems. With regulation, the first issue type succumbs to rehearsed preparation whereas the second hinges on extemporaneous practice. One is susceptible to ready-made technology applications while the other requires systemic deconstruction and solution-seeking redesign. Research suggests that smart city vendors are expertly configured to address the former, but less adept at and even ill-configured to react to and address the latter. Departures from status quo responses to systemic problems depend on formalizing metrics that enable city monitoring and data collection to assess “smart investments”, regardless of the size of the intervention, and to anticipate the need for designs that preserve the individuality of urban settings as they undergo the transformation to become “smart”.
Highlights
Smart cities are the object of desire of technology corporations that seek new markets for existing products as well as simultaneously seeking, for themselves, the status of being “smart” with the hope of improving their chances of attracting economic development investment
Smart cities have transitioned from being mere novelties, to serving as examples of technology application, to becoming principal targets of urban policy
According to authors such as Stephen Brown and Adriana Campelo of University of Ulster, we have entered an age where cities have taken on qualities that formerly only humans possessed [1]
Summary
Smart cities are the object of desire of technology corporations that seek new markets for existing products as well as simultaneously seeking, for themselves, the status of being “smart” with the hope of improving their chances of attracting economic development investment. The utility of the smart city has already morphed from being an assumed public benefit (i.e., increased efficiency, reduced cost, more efficient delivery of a variety of urban services) to exploiting recognition as a desired, new and burgeoning market niche for producers with off-the-shelf concepts and technologies. We continue the discussion to determine if the smart city reflects a viable urban future, taking into account its migration as a concept that is responsive to business opportunities and imperatives Why this is important is because many communities will be left behind as the sweep of big ideas has the potential to be fully adopted in only a few privileged situations. Given the current economic circumstances, one has to ask, is smart city development an achievable goal for numerous cities, or has it become an almost unattainable objective for most urban areas?
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