Who Is Planning the Smart City?

Abstract

C ities are sites of innovation. Smart city technology is one form of innovation that planners are increasingly encountering. But how and when does this innovation improve the quality of life in cities? Who decides how and when innovation gets deployed? Urban planners have always played a central role in generating policy, design, and public engagement processes while mediating competing interests in the city. What is the role of the planner in the smart city? Are we, as planning researchers, educators, and professionals, up to the task? The three books that comprise this review speak to the opportunities and challenges planners and our residents face. Interestingly, two of the three books reviewed here, by John Lorinc and Josh O’Kane, come not from planning researchers or educators but from Canadian journalists. The third book, edited by Susan Flynn, gathers 22 scholars of geography, architecture, digital culture, design, equity studies, sociology, digital learning, science and technology studies, theater, urban planning, engineering, creative industries, urban development, and communication. Collectively, these three books offer important critical insights on how efforts to bring new technologies to cities create tensions between innovation, privatesector interests, the role of governments in procuring and implementing innovative urban development projects, and resident engagement in planning and design processes. Though the intended audiences are broader than planning researchers, educators, students, and practitioners, individually and collectively these books are a cautionary tale for our profession and its role in the city-building process as we confront the uses and implications of digital technologies.