The Counter-hegemonic Smart City: From the SDGs to the Right to the City

Abstract

The discourse of smart cities, based on information and communication technologies, is fully inserted in the neoliberal urbanism model, by pursuing gains in efficiency and competitiveness and by advocating the central role of the private sector in the management of urban systems and in the production of urban space, to the detriment of public interest and the expansion of the right to the city. In parallel, planning and management proposals and practices that oppose this now hegemonic model have been adopted by several cities around the world. The paper aims to demonstrate the plausibility and relevance of narratives and practices of counter-hegemonic smart and sustainable cities, based on territorial intelligence and democratic governance, in which the production of urban space is guided by the pursuit of the SDGs and the expansion of the right to the city. For this, the methodology consisted of a recent literature review and the identification, recognition and establishment of theoretical-conceptual relationships in the discourses, narratives and hegemonic and counter-hegemonic practices of smart cities. As a main result, there is the development of the hypothesis that the expansion of the right to the city can materialize to the extent that the SDGs and their goals are partially or fully achieved.