There has been significant policy interest in Smart Cities as a means of harnessing the power of new IT solutions, urban sensors and Big Data to provide services more efficiently. But Smart Cities are part of a broader set of initiatives with a long history in urban technology and planning to try and generate innovation. Whilst data-driven service delivery initiatives are succeeding on their own, so-called living laboratories, knowledge precincts and other techno-utopian dreams that try to create a holistic Smart City have usually fallen short of expectations. Songdo in South Korea and Masdar in Abu Dhabi have struggled to achieve their goals. Now it is Google’s SidewalkLabs Quayside development in Toronto that is gaining international attention.

This partnership will be trialing tech solutions to urban problems, including shared mobility, and developing new tools for urban management. This presentation explores the underpinnings of the Smart Cities movement, describes what is happening with key Smart City initiatives, and provides critiques of Smart City philosophy from key urban theorists. All this is used to explore what it means for innovation in urban mobility and for social relations in the city.