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作者

来源

URBAN GEOGRAPHY,Vol.42,Issue3,P.360-381

语言

英文

关键字

Smart cities,city making,planning,ICT-driven infrastructures,African urbanism,Nairobi

作者单位

Department, Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

摘要

Since the late 2000s, the city of Nairobi in Kenya has become a focal point of large-scale and ambitious technology-driven city making processes and ambitions. In this study, we draw upon observations, interviews, and policy analysis to examine processes of city making and the spread of ICT-driven infrastructures, juxtaposing ambitious visions of emergent plans with ordinary realities of the African city. We demonstrate that while processes of smart city making have strongly been inclined toward technocratic approaches and deterministic appeals, this inclination is highly deceptive. We argue that rather than being deterministic, these processes are essentially politicized, highly contested, and shaped by the role and impact of local practices and context-specific realities. In making this argument, we draw from a social studies of technology perspective which engages with the notion of technological determinism to make this contribution to the academic field of critical urbanism.KEYWORDS: Smart citiescity makingplanningICT-driven infrastructuresAfrican urbanismNairobiAcknowledgementsThe authors like to thank all the actors and inhabitants of Nairobi who shared with us their knowledge and insights about smart city making in Nairobi. We would also like to acknowledge Berenice Bon, Elisabeth Peyroux and Sophie Schramm for their valuable feedback on earlier versions, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported through funding by the Hans Böckler Foundation [grant no. 396389] under the program “Urban Infrastructures in Transition: The Case of African Cities” in the Graduate School of Urban Studies (URBANgrad) at the Technical University of Darmstadt.