Urban innovation in the smart city: Technologies, transformations and new regimes of governance

Source abstract

Cities are engines of innovation, and increasingly, sites where technological change is mobilized to address complex urban challenges and shape more resilient futures. At the same time, cities face mounting pressures from crises operating across multiple scales and temporalities: from the disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to the long-term impacts of climate change. This Special Issue examines the evolving relationship between urban innovation, smart urbanization, and resilience, bringing together eleven contributions that explore how technological change is mediated through governance, institutions, and everyday urban life in ways that shape responses to crisis and prospects for urban futures. The papers are organized around four interconnected themes: global geographies and nested scales of urban innovation; governing innovation and innovations in governance; people and paradox in the smart city; and the emergence of new technologies and new epistemologies. The collection advances critical geographic perspectives on urban innovation and contributes to ongoing debates about the future of cities under conditions of accelerating technological change and uncertainty.