Smarter than Smart: Rio de Janeiro's Flawed Emergence as a Smart City

ABSTRACT

“Smart cities” grew out of the realization that North American models of suburban development and central business district decline needed to be challenged with new paradigms. This movement began in the 1990s with ideas centered on smart growth and new urbanism. While initially restricted to small, wealthy cities, the ideas that emerged during this period combined with a vertiginous growth in information technologies to create software-driven urban managerial tools for major cities. The increasing “technologization” of urban systems that automatically replicate spatial dynamics has been on the agenda of urban scholars for some time. However, the relatively new paradigms of “whole system” implementation in large urban centers has not been the subject of robust critical engagement. The aim of this paper is to examine critically the implementation and functioning of two “smart cities” systems in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as part of the city's broader preparations for hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

KEYWORDS:

• smart cities
• urban systems
• Rio de Janeiro
• World Cup
• Olympics

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Notes on Contributors

Christopher Gaffney is a senior research fellow in the Department of Geography, University of Zurich.

Cerianne Robertson is the research coordinator for the NGO Catalytic Communities, based in Rio de Janeiro.

ORCID

Christopher Gaffney http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9258-3116

Notes

1 The following observations are based on site visits to Rio's “smart city” installations, interviews with press officers, preliminary interviews with IBM and Samsung employees who worked on the installations, and research into the planning and operations of Rio's mega-events.

2 For a more detailed reading of the UPP projects, see Freeman, 2014.

3 The notion of a “geek squad” is also a performative trope of smartness that is reinforced through media reports. For more, see “‘Geeks’ ajudam prefeitura do Rio a resolver problemas da cidade” (2013); Fernandes, 2014.

4 We discovered a similar conflict between the COR and Samsung. COR officials told us that Samsung had donated hardware and television screens in exchange for tax breaks from the city. A Samsung official later told us that “there is no relationship whatsoever between the City of Rio and Samsung.” Yet the Samsung name is displayed prominently on the video wall.

5 IBM Intelligent Operations Center. Quotes from video available online: http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/intelligent-operations-center Accessed November 11, 2014.

6 Clicktivism is the “liking,” “favoriting,” and resharing of information about social activism or networks without physical participation. See more: http://www.micahmwhite.com/clicktivism/ Accessed November 11, 2014.

7 Flesh-based relationships in urban space are much more robust and reliable than virtual relationships. Though the two are frequently connected, the latter cannot last long without the former: Castells, 2007.