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

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Comparison of Bio-Inspired Algorithms in a Case Study for Optimizing Capacitor Bank Allocation in Electrical Power Distribution
  2. Web-Based Drills in Maths Using a Computer Algebra System
  3. Distributable Modular Software Framework for Manufacturing Systems
  4. Digital teaching as an instrument for cross-location teaching networks in medical informatics
  5. Extension of SEIR compartmental models for constructive Lyapunov control of COVID-19 and analysis in terms of practical stability
  6. Introducing #PBAE
  7. The use of pseudo-causal narratives in EU policies
  8. EMA Links with Management Systems and Other Stakeholders
  9. Model-based Analysis of Reassembly Processes within the Regeneration of Complex Capital Goods
  10. Worauf warten?
  11. Studienprogramm Nachhaltigkeit
  12. Development of a Questionnaire Assessing Discomfort – The Disco-Scale
  13. Current overview of research on priority effects and its relevance to restoration
  14. Investigation of the Controllability of Inductive Power Transmission Systems based on Flexible Coils
  15. Added value of convection-permitting simulations for understanding future urban humidity extremes
  16. Multiscale material modeling
  17. Understanding Similarities and Differences of Digital Health Platforms
  18. The use of the online Inverted Classroom Model for digital teaching with gamification in medical studies
  19. Ludic interfaces
  20. A transdisciplinary evaluation framework for the assessment of integration in boundary-crossing collaborations in teacher education
  21. Ionic liquids vs. ethanol as extraction media of algicidal compounds from mango processing waste
  22. Sustainable use of ecosystem services under multiple risks
  23. Remote sensing data
  24. Orientations for co-constructing a positive climate for diversity in teaching and learning
  25. Schreiben
  26. Workforce age trends and projections
  27. Adapting and evolving-learning place cooperation in change