Universität zu Köln

Leitheiser, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0001-6380-4821 and Follmann, Alexander (2020). The social innovation-(re)politicisation nexus: Unlocking the political in actually existing smart city campaigns? The case of SmartCity Cologne, Germany. Urban Stud., 57 (4). S. 894 - 916. LONDON: SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD. ISSN 1360-063X

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Abstract

As a prominent and performative discourse, The Smart City has the potential to shape urban futures. Yet, its mostly top-down implementation and dominantly technocratic definition of problems raises critiques of The Smart City as the latest version of a series of post-political and neoliberal visions of urban governance. However, as smart cities are implemented into 'actually existing' strategies locally, they are always negotiated and translated into place-specific contexts. Beyond critiquing the powerful discourse of The Smart City, the social innovation-(re)politicisation nexus (SIRN) spells out a framework for contesting and co-producing radically transformative smart city visions and politics as they take shape on the ground. Linking the empirical case study of the 'top-down' implementation of SmartCity Cologne, Germany, to current 'bottom-up' discourses on reclaiming the urban commons, we show how 'true' and 'real' social innovation must go hand-in-hand with a re-politicisation of hegemonic logics and discursive framings. In doing so, this paper makes theoretical and empirical contributions to public and academic discourse on which governance practices, methods and policies could contribute to radical transformations towards a 'truly' smart and sustainable urban future.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Leitheiser, Stephen UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-6380-4821 UNSPECIFIED Follmann, Alexander UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-131375
DOI:	10.1177/0042098019869820
Journal or Publication Title:	Urban Stud.
Volume:	57
Number:	4
Page Range:	S. 894 - 916
Date:	2020
Publisher:	SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
Place of Publication:	LONDON
ISSN:	1360-063X
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CITIES; SUSTAINABILITY; INNOVATION; GOVERNANCE; DEMOCRACY; ENERGY; SENSE Multiple languages Environmental Studies; Urban Studies Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/13137