Paper short abstract:

Empirical findings from interviews/ document analysis in 4 large German cities, which are said to be currently turned into smart cities, are juxtaposed with the rich literature on how ‘urban futures’/ ‘urban imaginaries’ influence urban planning today and influenced it in the 20th century.

Paper long abstract:

Today, the ideal of a 'Smart City' strongly influences urban planning and the development of urban infrastructures in most large cities globally. How exactly, i.e. in what forms and ways, is this ideal of smart and interconnected infrastructures impacting on contemporary decisions about infrastructure development and the shape of the built environment in a sample of 4 large German cities? In what ways are the 'smart users' and 'smart citizens', that are meant to be necessary for populating these smart cities, created?

In this contribution, I will contrast own empirical findings from interviews and document analysis from 5 large German cities, which are said to be currently turned into smart cities, with the rich literature on how 'urban futures' or 'urban imaginaries' (Soja 2000) influence urban planning today (e.g. de Jong et al. 2015, Luque-Ayala & Marvin 2015, Vanolo 2015) and influenced urban planning in the past (i.e. the 20th century) (Ward 2002, Hall 2014).

Applying an newly developed analytical framework (Sengers/ Spaeth/ Raven 2016), I will trace effects that the introduction of particular smart city ideals had on a) material technological developments, on b) management and governance institutions and on c) discourses about desired futures of the respective cities and their infrastructure systems. This will enable me to study the interplay between imagined and factual socio-technical developments in the field of various urban infrastructures (ICT, energy, mobility).