Five smart city futures: A criminological analysis of urban smartness

This chapter offers a brief criminological introduction to the smart city and in particular some of the grandiose corporate and tech industry claims that regularly surround the concept of urban smartness. More specifically it outlines five putative ‘smart city futures’: 1) ‘The smart city as sociotechnical imaginary’; 2) ‘The smart city as corporate “play” space’; 3) ‘The smart city as militarised tech zone’; 4) ‘The smart city as cyborg city’; and finally, 5) ‘The smart city as adversarial surface’. Adopting the perspective of cultural criminology, the chapter poses a series of questions about the future of urban apace in ‘the age of the smart city’. In particular, it asks what will ‘living’ actually mean when urban life is ultimately defined and enforced by a computational system?