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Googling the City: In Search of the Public Interest on Toronto’s ‘Smart’ Waterfront

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  • Kevin Morgan

    (Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK)

  • Brian Webb

    (Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK)

Abstract

Toronto’s Quayside waterfront regeneration project has become an international reference point for the burgeoning debate about the scope and limits of the digitally enabled ‘smart city’ narrative. The project signals the entry of a Google affiliate into the realm of ‘smart urbanism’ in the most dramatic fashion imaginable, by allowing them to potentially realise their long-running dream for “someone to give us a city and put us in charge.” This article aims to understand this on-going ‘smart city’ experiment through an exploration of the ways in which ‘techno-centric’ narratives and proposed ‘disruptive’ urban innovations are being contested by the city’s civic society. To do this, the article traces the origins and evolution of the partnership between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs and identifies the key issues that have exercised local critics of the plan, including the public/private balance of power, governance, and the planning process. Despite more citizen-centric efforts, there remains a need for appropriate advocates to protect and promote the wider public interest to moderate the tensions that exist between techno-centric and citizen-centric dimensions of smart cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Morgan & Brian Webb, 2020. "Googling the City: In Search of the Public Interest on Toronto’s ‘Smart’ Waterfront," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 84-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:5:y:2020:i:1:p:84-95
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Simon Joss & Frans Sengers & Daan Schraven & Federico Caprotti & Youri Dayot, 2019. "The Smart City as Global Discourse: Storylines and Critical Junctures across 27 Cities," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(1), pages 3-34, January.
    6. Christopher Gaffney & Cerianne Robertson, 2018. "Smarter than Smart: Rio de Janeiro's Flawed Emergence as a Smart City," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 47-64, July.
    7. Simon Joss, 2018. "Future cities: asserting public governance," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-4, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Karvonen & Matthew Cook & Håvard Haarstad, 2020. "Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 65-68.
    2. Mike Hodson & Andrew McMeekin, 2021. "Global technology companies and the politics of urban socio-technical imaginaries in the digital age: Processual proxies, Trojan horses and global beachheads," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1391-1411, September.

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