Please join the Westminster Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) for a research seminar with Prof. Sarah Chiumbu (University of Johannesburg).
Details
Over the years, smart and safe cities have become a key policy concern of many governments around the world. Countries are racing to establish such cities, citing several potential benefits and opportunities that such cities can offer such as efficiency, sustainability, and the improved quality of life for their residents. Smart cities are gaining popularity in Sub-Saharan Africa, as many nations are implementing numerous initiatives and projects to make their cities smarter and safer. Using South Africa as a case study and drawing on the concepts of the Informational Right to the City (Shaw & Graham 2017), digital neocolonialism (Mouton & Burns 2021) and selective gaze (Williams and Johnstone 2000), the paper critiques the implementation of smart and safe city projects by highlighting issues such as limited community participation, data colonialism, inequities in surveillance practices and spatial injustices. The paper further critiques the technocratic and market-driven approach to the smart and safe city projects and examines how surveillance through the CCTV cameras reinforces existing spatial and racial inequalities, particularly in South Africa’s historically segregated urban cities. The paper argues for decolonial approaches to reimagining smart and safe cities to circumvent perpetuating social injustices and to promote inclusivity and equity in these projects.
Biographies
Sarah Chiumbu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media, School of Communication at the University of Johannesburg. Before joining the University of Johannesburg, she was Senior Research Specialist in the Human and Social Development Research Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She also spent 7 years the University of Witwatersrand where she was a senior lecturer in media and communication studies. Her research interests include media, democracy and citizenship, digital and alternative media, policy studies, decolonial and postcolonial theories. She has contributed to various academic conferences and written many research studies, policy papers and reports and published widely in international accredited journals.
