Digital and Smart Cities

Digital and Smart Cities presents an overview of how technologies shape our cities. There is a growing awareness in the fields of design and architecture of the need to address the way that technology affects the urban condition. This book aims to provide an informative and definitive overview of the topic of digital and smart cities. It explores the subject from a variety of perspectives, both theoretical and historical, and through a range of case studies of digital cities around the world.

The authors take an approach that views the city as a socially constructed set of activities, practices and organisations. This enables the discussion to move towards a more holistic and citizen-centred understanding of how technology shapes urban change through the way it is imagined, used, implemented and developed in a societal context. By bringing together a range of currently quite disparate discussions, the aim is to enable the reader to adopt their own critical position within the topic.

The book begins with definitions and sets out the various interpretations and aspects of what constitutes and defines digital cities. The text goes on to investigate and consider the range of factors that shape the characteristics of digital cities, drawing together different disciplinary perspectives into a coherent discussion. The consideration of the different dimensions of the digital city is supported by a series of relevant case studies of global city contexts, framing the discussion with real-world examples.