The Ambivalences of Smart Cities

Abstract

This chapter deals with the emerging urban spaces of the 21st century, at first named as sentient cities and then as smart cities, which result from the growth of megalopolises. This growth was accompanied by the expansion of disruptive technologies such as the internet, surveillance cameras, and sensors throughout the space interfering with domestic, public, corporate, and government affairs. The purpose of the chapter is to analyze the ambivalences that result from the inevitability of the use of intelligent technologies to guarantee the management and administration of the urban life, on the one hand, but the increase on the systems of control and surveillance, on the other side, to the point of converting the ambivalences into paradoxes.