Wilson, Mark ; Decaminada, Travis ; Darcy, Cornelius ; Kassens-Noor, Eva
Hrsg.: Miao, Julie T. (2024)
Who speaks for smart cities?: Social media, influence, and stories of innovation.
In: Routledge Companion to Creativity and the Built Environment
Buchkapitel, Bibliographie

Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

Smart cities are increasingly promoted as the next generation of autonomous management systems that monitor and run our cities. The term as a technological phenomenon is relatively young—around thirty years old—but conveys a future image of the city attractive to many urban leaders and residents. Smart cities are portrayed as innovative, futuristic, and a break with the analog past. In analyzing the literature of smart cities, however, the term is mainly used by technology and software firms and consultants, causing us to ask: how is the narrative of smart cities created and disseminated? Who is promoting smart cities as creative and innovative? Using social media content generated by Twitter, we analyze 4.7 million tweets containing #smartcity or #smartcities to capture the form and source of messaging. Results show that the major influencers for smart cities on Twitter are centrally placed or allied to the technology vendors and advisers that endorse smart cities, and that a few influencers and bots account for a significant share of the tweets on the subject. Further, the messages are primarily positive and attract little dissent or discussion. The study raises broader questions about how an increasingly technology-based society learns and understands the forces that shape their daily life, and the interests of those shaping the narratives of technology.

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