Smart cities in Brazil: connections between corporate power, rights, and civic engagement

Abstract

The smart city agenda has been consolidating in Brazil based on asymmetrical power relations between state and non-state actors, permeated by conflicts of interest between companies, governments, and communities at the transnational, regional and local levels. From the New Urban Agenda signed in Quito in 2016 to the recent “master plans'' led by private consulting firms in Brazilian municipalities, corporate approaches to urban intelligence highlight the neoliberal rationale behind the concept and its consequences. Here, we offer a critical look at this agenda from the Global South, and associate the reach of corporate power, the guarantee of rights (right to the city and digital rights), and resistance efforts rooted in local and international collaboration networks.

smart cities; new urban agenda; right to the city; digital rights; civic engagement