Smartness as Wealth

Project: Research

Project participants

  • Beverungen, Armin (Project manager, academic)
  • Halpern, Orit (Project manager, academic)
  • Steinberg, Marc (Project manager, academic)
  • Nag, Anindita (Project manager, academic)
  • Cirolia, Liza Rose (Project manager, academic)
  • Dresden University of Technology
  • University of Cape Town

Description



Smartness promises wealth to cities around the world. Across the planet, we see a growing investment by corporations, philanthropies, start-ups, and governments in computational infrastructures that will manage cities and their inhabitants. This smartness is closely affiliated with venture capital and start-up experiments. It is assumed that smart systems in logistics, real estate, finance, energy and retail will encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, and will resolve problems of top-down economic planning. In this project five particular aspects of this new model of wealth creation and urban management will be examined: optimization, sustainability, inclusion, resilience, and convenience. These are all particular varieties of the promise of wealth associated with smartness: the optimization and subsequent affordability provided by logistics; the sustainability required for living on a planet in crisis; the inclusion in economic life offered by decentralized finance; the energy resilience to climate change, resource limitations, and geopolitics promised by smart grids and financial hedging; and the convenience sold by smart retail. It is smartness which propels these promises a smartness promoted by venture capital. Whether through public smart city initiatives or the plethora of private urban platforms for mobility, sustainability, finance and retail, venture capital is reshaping how wealth is produced and reproduced in the cities of today and tomorrow. This project examines historically and ethnographically the relationship between contemporary smart urbanism and wealth, and the urban economies transformed through smart technologies. Ethnographically the research will occur in five sites in five different countries: Hamburg, Nairobi, Denver and Tokyo. Historically, the research will examine genealogies of smartness and venture capital at these sites and compare smart urban initiatives globally.
StatusActive
Period01.10.2330.09.27

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Publications

  1. Structural Synthesis of Parallel Robots with Unguided Linear Actuators
  2. Intraspecific trait variation patterns along a precipitation gradient in Mongolian rangelands
  3. Detection time analysis of propulsion system fault effects in a hexacopter
  4. Design, Modeling and Control of an Over-actuated Hexacopter Tilt-Rotor
  5. Are all errors created equal?
  6. Optimal dynamic scale and structure of a multi-pollution economy
  7. Modeling the distribution of white spruce (Picea glauca) for Alaska with high accuracy: an open access role-model for predicting tree species in last remaining wilderness areas
  8. Educational reconstruction as model for the theory-based design of student-centered learning environments in electrical engineering courses
  9. Linear free vibrations with uncertain initial conditions
  10. Media coverage of discourse on adaptation
  11. Computer als Medium
  12. Discourse pragmatics
  13. Differences of Four Work-Related Behavior and Experience Patterns in Work Ability and Other Work-Related Perceptions in a Finance Company
  14. Optical 3D laser measurement system for navigation of autonomous mobile robot
  15. (How) Can didactic research find its way into the classroom? Results from a questionnaire survey on the lesson preparation and continuing professional development of German teachers
  16. Non-acceptances in context
  17. A decoupling dynamic estimator for online parameters indentification of permanent magnet three-phase synchronous motors
  18. Introduction to Philosophy of Management
  19. An Overview of Electro Hydraulic Full Variable Valve Train Systems to Reduce Emissions in Internal Combustion Engines
  20. Bifactor Models for Predicting Criteria by General and Specific Factors
  21. Microstructural and mechanical aspects of reinforcement welds for lightweight components produced by friction hydro pillar processing
  22. Pushing the Boundaries
  23. Augmented space
  24. Ob lang oder kurz, berührbar oder nicht: Ist die Längenschätzkompetenz eindimensional?
  25. A transdisciplinary evaluation framework for the assessment of integration in boundary-crossing collaborations in teacher education