Discourse
The Smart City
Explore in the Atlas →A contemporary urban discourse promoting the instrumentation of cities with sensors, data platforms and algorithmic management in pursuit of efficiency, sustainability and control. As a regime of statements it carries a strong sociotechnical imaginary of the optimised, legible city and materialises in surveillance infrastructure, control rooms, connected devices and data-driven planning — while drawing critique for privatisation, opacity and the politics of who is rendered visible.
Infrastructure Sign Power
Details
- Introduced
- 21st century
- Register
- Instituted
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- ObservationReason
- Subject
- Human centred
- Political position
- Hegemonic
- Degree of codification
- Pattern based
- Mode of transmission
- Digital model
- Knowledge type
- Propositional
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- circulates through The Algorithmic Imaginary
- performs The Sociotechnical Imaginary
Referenced by
- Sheila Jasanoff proposed
Sources
- n.d..
- n.d..
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "The Smart City." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/discourse/the-smart-city/. Accessed July 17, 2026.