{"product_id":"smart-as-a-city-the-politics-of-test-bed-urbanism-paperback","title":"Smart as a City: The Politics of Test-Bed Urbanism - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBurcu Baykurt\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSmart as a City \u003c\/i\u003eprovides a rich ethnographic investigation into how smartness is received and negotiated in a midsize US city. Burcu Baykurt follows the work of civic entrepreneurs, local residents, and city officials in Kansas City, Missouri, where Google tested a citywide gigabit service and the local government launched a series of smart city pilot projects in transportation, public housing, and municipal services. Baykurt redefines smartness as a collective effort to spotlight a city's enduring local problems and align solutions with the often buggy, partially developed systems offered by tech companies. She shows that success in matching civic concerns with flawed tech systems is hard-won and ambiguous, and that the techniques of data capitalism extract value from urban inequalities rather than solve them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In \u003ci\u003eSmart as a City\u003c\/i\u003e, Burcu Baykurt deftly shows that high-tech city strategies, like Google's grand ambitions for Kansas City, actually enhance ignorance, waste precious resources, and disappoint a hopeful public. The careful research in this book reveals that instead of falling in line for shiny new urban wares, citizen groups and policymakers should persist in the often difficult but proven efforts that help people get housing, jobs, and access to decent schools.\"--Harvey Molotch, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eUrban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Baykurt's ethnography crackles with insight, exposing how flashy 'innovation' and hollow promises of reinvention often sideline community wisdom and the real sources of urban inequity. This book is a stirring reminder that lasting justice requires valuing the people who understand their cities from the ground up.\"--Ruha Benjamin, author of \u003ci\u003eRace After Technology\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Imagination: A Manifesto\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Vivid and beautifully written, \u003ci\u003eSmart as a City \u003c\/i\u003eforces us to reckon with the fact that techno-utopian imaginaries of test-bed urbanism, while speculative, are never ephemeral. They function as traps in which people must negotiate inequitable lives while political alternatives are quelled. Baykurt reminds us that the hunt for high-tech fixes will endure so long as cities remain unequal.\"--Sarah Sharma, author of \u003ci\u003eInsufferable Tools: Feminism Against Big Tech\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBurcu Baykurt \u003c\/b\u003eis Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eSoft-Power Internationalism: \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eCompeting for Cultural Influence in the 21st-Century Global Order.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 228\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.6 x 8.4 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 05, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53344798966067,"sku":"9780520413252","price":60.91,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/a05RfALj3m9780520413252.webp?v=1778732182","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/en-ca\/products\/smart-as-a-city-the-politics-of-test-bed-urbanism-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}