Occidental Studies

Analyzing the Concept of Smart City; Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's and David Harvey’s Idea of ‘the Right to the City’

Rahman Sharifzadeh

Volume 14, Issue 2 , February 2024

https://doi.org/10.30465/os.2024.48009.1955

Abstract

Introduction While there is a wealth of research on smart cities, a significant theoretical and intellectual gap persists, particularly from an urbanism perspective. This gap hinders our full comprehension of the phenomena we encounter or will encounter. Common approaches to smart cities, while beneficial, ... Read More Introduction While there is a wealth of research on smart cities, a significant theoretical and intellectual gap persists, particularly from an urbanism perspective. This gap hinders our full comprehension of the phenomena we encounter or will encounter. Common approaches to smart cities, while beneficial, often consider them in isolation from urbanism trends. A thorough examination of smart cities' conceptual, practical, and socio-ethical aspects must include an understanding of the fundamental nature of cities and their relationship with citizens. Current literature tends to sideline the analysis of the city concept, focusing instead on technological, managerial, and systemic aspects. However, understanding the city and its interaction with citizens is crucial for smart city discourse. This article delves into smart cities within the context of contemporary urbanism, emphasizing Henri Lefebvre's and David Harvey's 'right to the city' as a pivotal concept. We aim to delineate and discuss the 'right to the smart city' within this framework. Methodology Our methodology involves a conceptual analysis and argumentation, drawing upon existing literature in contemporary urbanism and smart cities. We seek to reinterpret the smart city concept within contemporary urbanism, particularly through the lens of Lefebvre's and Harvey's 'right to the city,' addressing its core questions and elements. Findings The 'right to the city' discourse prompts the question: Do citizens desire a smart city? Harvey interprets this right as the ability to construct, reconstruct, and alter the city's form, suggesting that citizens should have a say in the city's smart transformation. Yet, smart city literature seldom addresses this fundamental query, often assuming the inevitability of smart city development and focusing on mitigating its negative socio-ethical impacts. This presumption may stem from technological determinism, urban elitism, or the tenets of liberalism/capitalism. Lefebvre and Harvey argue for a smart city right that awakens citizens to the dominance of their living spaces. Recognizing the 'right to the city' naturally leads to the question of citizen involvement in smart city development. If affirmative, the subsequent inquiry under the 'right to the city' framework is: What kind of smart city is desired? By extrapolating from Lefebvre's and Harvey's ideas, we identify three components of the 'right to the smart city': the power of citizens to collectively decide and shape the smart city, the necessity of genuine participation in urban governance, that is the ability to oversee major urban processes, and finally the ability to space production. Such participation and oversight are only feasible within the 'production of space' as defined by Lefebvre and others. Without this, not only is urban life experience compromised, but there is also no mechanism to enforce collective will in case of governmental deviation. Conclusion Lefebvre's and Harvey's 'right to the city' framework redefines our relationship with the smart city. It challenges the perceived inevitability and taken-for-grantedness of smart city development and aims to heighten citizen awareness of their connection to the smart city. This framework differentiates the city from mere habitat and market. A smart city is not a mere habitat or a data-driven market, and any attempt to reduce the smart city to these two will make this concept meaningless.

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Rereading the play Happy Days by Samuel Beckett Based on the principles of existentialism

mohammad bagher ansari; Ahmad kamyabi Mask; shahla Eslami

Volume 13, Issue 1 , June 2022, , Pages 77-95

https://doi.org/10.30465/os.2022.42968.1859

Abstract

Existentialism is a philosophical school based on freedom, choice and responsibility that seeks to define the originality of human beings. This line of thought and philosophical attitude is reflected in the plays of Beckett, the French-Irish author of the 20th century and the winner of the Nobel Prize ... Read More

Wittgenstein's Theory of Language Games: A Postmodern Philosophical Viewpoint of Language

Beytollah Naderlew

Volume 2, Issue 1 , September 2011, , Pages 87-100

Abstract

The Theory of Language Games is the key notion of Ludwig Wittgenstein's latter philosophy. This theory has been crafted against The Picture Theory of Language as the core of Wittgenstein’s Tractarian vision. According to The Picture Theory of Language, Language has ... Read More

The Criticism of Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Subject, Truth and Power in Michel Foucault’s Thought

Zakaria Ghaderi

Volume 2, Issue 2 , January 2012, , Pages 127-179

Abstract

Abstract: the basis of dualism in western philosophy, that flourished in modernity, was built upon the opposition between reason/intuition, heaven/earth, spirit/body, pleasure/morality. Foucault extends the criticism of this dualism to its final station in favor of intuition/earth. This paper will consider ... Read More

Historical Periods and the Philosophy of Islamic Civilization and Its Relationship with the History of Western Civilization

Mousa Najafi

Volume 3, Issue 2 , March 2013, , Pages 129-149

Abstract

Islamic Civilization is a subject with great importance, not only concerned with the identity of the Islamic world but also can be an effective factor in establishing it in the time when the Western Civilization beholds nothing equal to itself. But finding ups and downs occurred in the Western Civilization ... Read More

"Eternal Recurrence" as Zarathustra's Most Abysmal Thought

Roohollah Karimi

Volume 6, Issue 2 , June 2016, , Pages 89-113

Abstract

Nietzsche thinks Thus Spoke Zarathustra is his greatest book and the doctrine of eternal recurrence is the “most Abysmal Thought” of this book. Why has this doctrine such importance in the philosophy of Nietzsche? Although there are differences between eternal recurrence in The Gay Science ... Read More

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Analyzing the Concept of Smart City; Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's and David Harvey’s Idea of ‘the Right to the City’

Abstract

Rereading the play Happy Days by Samuel Beckett Based on the principles of existentialism

Abstract

Wittgenstein's Theory of Language Games: A Postmodern Philosophical Viewpoint of Language

Abstract

The Criticism of Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Subject, Truth and Power in Michel Foucault’s Thought

Abstract

Historical Periods and the Philosophy of Islamic Civilization and Its Relationship with the History of Western Civilization

Abstract

"Eternal Recurrence" as Zarathustra's Most Abysmal Thought

Abstract

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