Precarious practices and policies in the divided 'smart city'

In recent years, the concept of the 'smart city' has become a global phenomenon, which is greatly influencing contemporary urban policymaking. This project seeks to explore how the ongoing implementation of smart technologies in the city of Brighton - which proclaims itself a leading 'smart city' - finds its place in the precarious lives of citizens; and to determine the role of policy in these processes. It considers the ways in which those left behind by increasing datafication and automation can be included in policy-making processes to reduce marginalisation and promote their full participation in urban life and culture. It focuses on the urban street as a site of precarious practices, of co-existence, contestation, resilience and potential transformation, exploring improvisations that enable people to subsist. Street spaces are public rights of way, social spaces of multiple interactions and political spaces of civic engagement. They are moved through, moved in, and are spaces in which people slow down and immobilise to interact with others and the objects and spaces around them. They are also the site for 'smart city' initiatives such as automated lighting and 'smart parking'. The project is original in adopting a mobile ethnographic approach alongside policy analysis. This allows an examination of the ways in which precarious communities interact with digital technologies and automation, the ways in which policy-makers work to promote the expansion of digital technologies into every aspect of city life; and the policy context, of the acceleration of 'smart city' solutions to address urban issues.