Smartness Beyond the Network: Water ATMs and Disruptions from below in Mathare Valley, Nairobi. Issue 4 (2nd October 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Smartness Beyond the Network: Water ATMs and Disruptions from below in Mathare Valley, Nairobi. Issue 4 (2nd October 2022)
- Main Title:
- Smartness Beyond the Network: Water ATMs and Disruptions from below in Mathare Valley, Nairobi
- Authors:
- Guma, Prince K.
Wiig, Alan - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: This article critiques decontextualized notions of smart urbanism by examining the variegated and spontaneous infrastructural configurations stemming from the deployment of a digital project in an informal urban setting. We offer an empirical examination of the rollout of water ATMs in Mathare Valley, Nairobi, to highlight three types of "smartness beyond the network": first, where water ATMs evidence a smart digital infrastructure that transcends the networked urban water supply; second, where residents, in their adoption and use of water ATMs, unsettle their original operation, in the process driving them further away from their original design through disruptions from below; and third, where persistent manifestations of pre-existing mechanisms exist that are non-state and non-networked and sometimes integrate indicating digital technologies heterogeneous articulations and smartness from below. In sum, we argue for unpacking Southern and alternative visions for smart digital infrastructure, considering that smartness, within diverse urban settings, is informed not just by hegemonic and aspirational articulations of city making, but also by dwellers' context-specific and nonlinear processes of place making.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of urban technology. Volume 29:Issue 4(2022)
- Journal:
- Journal of urban technology
- Issue:
- Volume 29:Issue 4(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 29, Issue 4 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 29
- Issue:
- 4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0029-0004-0000
- Page Start:
- 41
- Page End:
- 61
- Publication Date:
- 2022-10-02
- Subjects:
- infrastructure -- smart urbanism -- automation -- heterogeneity -- Southern urbanism
Cities and towns -- Periodicals
Cities and towns -- Effect of technological innovations on -- Periodicals
303.483305 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjut20#.VmgEpFInyic ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/10630732.2022.2037180 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1063-0732
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 5071.695000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 24496.xml