Evangelists of the urban future. A decolonial critique of the smart city narrative in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

The smart city (SC) is an urban planning model and image of the urban future that circulates globally. In order to broaden the scope of the SC literature, this article examines how the SC debate has played out in Chile, and specifically in Santiago, where SC initiatives are supported by a local alliance that includes segments of the government and technology companies. We analyse how the SC narrative has been performed and promoted, asking how it is portrayed, how the city is problematised and by whom. We describe the promotion of SC ideas here through the concept of evangelisation, which we see as the process of deploying narratives of the future centred upon notions of salvation and superiority. Working from a decolonial perspective, we find similarities in the way that the SC is promoted in Chile and other evangelisation processes that have been maintained for centuries in Latin America. We use this perspective to discuss SC narratives as forms of epistemic colonialism. Furthermore, drawing on participant observation at SC events held in Santiago, we discuss the disconnect between the promoters of SC policies, the people charged with implementing them, and the city dwellers who are impacted by them. We conclude by reflecting on the ways that a decolonial perspective can help scholars critically assess the SC model within the context of global policy mobilities and unequal urban power relations.

Keywords:

• Santiago de Chile
• smart cities
• urban narratives
• decolonialism
• evangelisation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Guillermo Jajamovich, Carlos Lange, and Pedro Pablo Achondo for their insightful suggestions in bibliography and ideas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See www.sesantiago.cl.

2 For details on how some of the SC initiatives can be considered ‘placebo urban interventions’, see Jirón et al. (2020).

3 The research for this paper aimed to elucidate how the SC narrative conceptualises the city and the way the city is problematised; the type of urban issues highlighted and the smart solutions proposed to address them; and the type of actors called to be convinced or evangelised under this narrative. The research team was composed of anthropologists and urbanists specialising in mobility issues.

4 Development Corporation based within the Ministry of Economics.

5 From the work of Silvestre & Jajamovich (2021, forthcoming), a fifth recirculation phase could be considered, however, this is not yet observed in the case of Santiago.

6 Authors' translation.

7 FONDECYT Project N° 1171554 ‘Prácticas de intervenir y habitar el territorio: develando el conocimiento urbano situado’ was carried out between 2017 and 2020. The research project involved ethnographic observation regarding four different public urban interventions (urban regeneration, urban transport, cultural infrastructure, and SCs) in relation to urban dwelling experiences and various institutional ethnographies (Jirón, Orellana, and Imilan 2018). Over two years, four practices and uses of specific SC interventions in Santiago were observed, including bicycle sharing systems, neighbourhood smart lighting, security cameras, and SC events, including workshops, seminars, conferences, and working groups. Ethnographic observations included interviews and participant observation; these observations were recorded in field notes which were then complemented with additional data on the interventions.

8 The first are understood as actions executed by a group of public and/or private actors, through infrastructures, services, housing, urban and housing upgrading works among others. Everyday dwelling practices, on the other hand, are understood as the way urban dwellers experience, individually and collectively with others and other things, their territories on a daily basis.

9 País Digital is a foundation that manages SE Santiago along with CORFO. Fundación País Digital is an institution promoting the development of a digital culture in Chile, articulating the construction of public–private alliances and the projects, as well as content generation that contribute to the country’s development in the face of the fourth industrial revolution (authors’ translation) (www.paisdigital.org).

10 Private courier company.

11 Banking company that today manages most of the local banking transfers.

12 AMZO (Asociación de Municipalidades de la Zona Oriente/Eastern Zone Municipalities Association) and AMUCH (Asociación de Municipalidades de Chile/Chilean Municipalities Association) are the two main partnerships of municipalities in Chile.

13 SECPLA, Secretaría de Planificación Comunal, Planning Unit at Municipal level.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the research behind this paper was obtained from FONDECYT Project N° 1171554 ‘Urban Intervention and Dwelling Practices: Unveiling Situated Urban Knowledge’ and Social Sciences Millennium Initiative ANID NCS17_027 Mobilities and Territories Nucleus—MOVYT.

Notes on contributors

Paola Jirón

Paola Jirón is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Housing, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile.

Walter Imilan

Walter Imilan is an Associate Professor at Universidad Central de Chile. Email: [email protected]

Eduardo Osterling

Eduardo Osterling is a Research Assistant at the Institute of Housing, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Chile. Email: [email protected]