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  1	
  
Smart	
  is	
  a	
  Relative	
  Term:	
  
Evaluating	
  the	
  Flawed	
  Thinking	
  Behind	
  Smart	
  Cities	
  
By	
  Douglas	
  Hinkel	
  
	
  
Progress	
  is	
  forward	
  movement	
  that	
  often	
  subjectively	
  implies	
  improvement.	
  It	
  can	
  
only	
  be	
  relatively	
  measured	
  through	
  the	
  comparison	
  of	
  a	
  past	
  and	
  present	
  state.	
  
Thus,	
  progress	
  is	
  a	
  relative	
  term	
  that	
  is	
  dependent	
  not	
  only	
  on	
  time,	
  but	
  also	
  on	
  
space	
  and	
  place.	
  Progress	
  and	
  the	
  elements	
  that	
  it	
  consists	
  of—time,	
  space,	
  place,	
  
and	
  subjectivity—are	
  important	
  factors	
  for	
  analyzing	
  the	
  topics	
  and	
  themes	
  of	
  this	
  
essay,	
  which	
  explores	
  the	
  naturally	
  progressive	
  attitude	
  of	
  human	
  beings	
  and	
  how	
  it	
  
results	
  in	
  a	
  constantly	
  changing	
  society.	
  These	
  changes	
  can	
  be	
  largely	
  attributed	
  to	
  a	
  
relentless	
  pursuit	
  of	
  efficiency	
  that	
  is	
  accomplished	
  through	
  innovation,	
  
implementation,	
  and	
  building.	
  While	
  beneficial	
  in	
  the	
  short	
  term,	
  progress	
  and	
  
increased	
  efficiency	
  add	
  new	
  layers	
  of	
  complexity	
  to	
  the	
  global	
  system,	
  which	
  can	
  
exacerbate	
  undetected	
  issues	
  or	
  give	
  rise	
  to	
  new	
  problems.	
  	
  
	
  
The	
  full	
  extent	
  of	
  progressive	
  human	
  ambition	
  was	
  demonstrated	
  during	
  the	
  
Industrial	
  Revolution.	
  With	
  building	
  and	
  consumerism	
  rising	
  to	
  the	
  forefront	
  of	
  
Western	
  civilization,	
  the	
  nineteenth	
  century	
  was	
  a	
  time	
  of	
  great	
  economic	
  
prosperity.	
  However,	
  the	
  wealth	
  did	
  not	
  come	
  without	
  a	
  cost—the	
  revolution’s	
  long-­‐
term,	
  adverse	
  effects	
  are	
  now	
  being	
  realized	
  with	
  a	
  growing	
  number	
  of	
  global	
  
problems.	
  This	
  variety	
  of	
  problems—climate	
  change,	
  the	
  energy	
  crisis,	
  population	
  
overload,	
  and	
  food	
  and	
  fresh	
  water	
  shortage	
  —are	
  what	
  Glen	
  Kuecker	
  refers	
  to	
  as	
  
the	
  “perfect	
  storm”	
  because	
  they	
  are	
  all	
  threatening	
  to	
  simultaneously	
  culminate	
  
and	
  feed	
  off	
  each	
  other.	
  For	
  example,	
  Earth’s	
  rising	
  population	
  means	
  more	
  food	
  and	
  
fresh	
  water	
  will	
  be	
  needed	
  and	
  consumed,	
  but	
  climate	
  change	
  and	
  pollution	
  will	
  
decrease	
  the	
  amount	
  of	
  available	
  farmland	
  and	
  drinkable	
  water	
  (Kuecker	
  2007).	
  
With	
  developing	
  countries	
  like	
  China	
  and	
  India	
  growing	
  rapidly,	
  these	
  conditions	
  
will	
  only	
  worsen.	
  The	
  United	
  States	
  is	
  the	
  second	
  most	
  environmentally	
  harmful	
  
country	
  in	
  the	
  world,	
  second	
  only	
  to	
  the	
  United	
  Arab	
  Emirates.	
  If	
  every	
  nation	
  were	
  
to	
  live	
  like	
  the	
  United	
  States,	
  more	
  than	
  four	
  Earths	
  would	
  be	
  needed	
  to	
  sustain	
  
conditions;	
  thus,	
  allowing	
  developing	
  nations	
  to	
  follow	
  similar	
  paths	
  will	
  be	
  
disastrous	
  (Elert	
  2012).	
  But,	
  there	
  are	
  ethical	
  issues	
  in	
  preventing	
  nations	
  from	
  
growing	
  through	
  building	
  and	
  innovation:	
  the	
  United	
  States	
  did	
  it	
  so	
  why	
  shouldn’t	
  
other	
  countries	
  be	
  allowed	
  to	
  experience	
  the	
  same	
  financial	
  benefits?	
  Consequently,	
  
it’s	
  essential	
  for	
  devising	
  a	
  solution	
  that	
  allows	
  developing	
  nations	
  to	
  grow	
  
economically	
  without	
  inflicting	
  the	
  same	
  environmental	
  harm.	
  	
  
	
  
Focusing	
  on	
  cities	
  is	
  key	
  for	
  mitigating	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm”	
  while	
  not	
  harming	
  
economic	
  prosperity.	
  For	
  the	
  first	
  time	
  in	
  history,	
  more	
  than	
  fifty	
  percent	
  of	
  the	
  
global	
  population	
  now	
  lives	
  in	
  urban	
  areas.	
  By	
  2050,	
  the	
  world’s	
  population	
  is	
  
projected	
  to	
  surpass	
  ten	
  billion	
  people	
  with	
  approximately	
  two	
  thirds	
  of	
  them	
  
calling	
  a	
  city	
  their	
  home	
  (World’s	
  Population	
  Increasingly	
  Urban	
  2014).	
  Cities	
  are	
  
commonly	
  thought	
  of	
  as	
  concrete	
  havens	
  swarming	
  with	
  cars	
  and	
  filled	
  with	
  air	
  and	
  
noise	
  pollution,	
  but	
  if	
  designed	
  correctly,	
  they	
  are	
  the	
  most	
  ecologically	
  mindful	
  
option.	
  The	
  density	
  of	
  a	
  city	
  reduces	
  motorized	
  vehicle	
  usage	
  and	
  makes	
  it	
  easier	
  to	
  
  2	
  
travel	
  by	
  walking,	
  cycling,	
  and	
  using	
  public	
  transit.	
  The	
  individuals	
  behind	
  a	
  new	
  
trend	
  of	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  hoping	
  to	
  capitalize	
  on	
  the	
  city’s	
  untapped	
  potential	
  and	
  
offer	
  a	
  solution	
  to	
  the	
  globe’s	
  worsening	
  conditions.	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities—a	
  recent	
  creation	
  of	
  progressive	
  human	
  thought—aim	
  to	
  use	
  
technology	
  to	
  make	
  cities	
  more	
  connected,	
  efficient,	
  and	
  ultimately,	
  more	
  enjoyable	
  
living	
  environments.	
  They	
  present	
  themselves	
  as	
  cities	
  of	
  the	
  future	
  that	
  will	
  
improve	
  upon	
  the	
  poor,	
  inefficient	
  designs	
  of	
  past	
  cities	
  by	
  offering	
  new	
  ways	
  of	
  
thinking	
  and	
  living	
  that	
  are	
  more	
  environmentally	
  friendly.	
  There	
  is	
  no	
  clear	
  
definition	
  for	
  what	
  a	
  smart	
  city	
  is,	
  but	
  technology	
  will	
  certainly	
  play	
  a	
  large	
  part.	
  
Sensors	
  will	
  be	
  placed	
  throughout	
  the	
  city	
  to	
  monitor	
  things	
  like	
  traffic	
  patterns,	
  
pollution	
  levels,	
  and	
  energy	
  consumption.	
  Data	
  will	
  arguably	
  be	
  the	
  smart	
  city’s	
  
most	
  valuable	
  asset,	
  as	
  it	
  will	
  be	
  used	
  to	
  predict	
  patterns	
  and	
  make	
  the	
  city	
  more	
  
efficient.	
  Anthony	
  Townsend,	
  author	
  of	
  Smart	
  Cities,	
  defines	
  them	
  as	
  “places	
  where	
  
information	
  technology	
  is	
  combined	
  with	
  infrastructure,	
  architecture,	
  everyday	
  
objects,	
  and	
  even	
  our	
  bodies	
  to	
  address	
  social,	
  economic,	
  and	
  environmental	
  
problems”	
  (Townsend	
  2014,	
  15).	
  Unfortunately,	
  while	
  they	
  appear	
  sleek,	
  innovative,	
  
and	
  new,	
  smart	
  cities	
  fall	
  into	
  the	
  same	
  Cartesian,	
  mechanistic	
  thinking	
  trap	
  
(discussed	
  in	
  Theme	
  3)	
  that	
  causes	
  more	
  problems	
  than	
  it	
  solves.	
  
	
  
This	
  essay	
  will	
  use	
  smart	
  cities	
  to	
  illustrate	
  the	
  conceptual	
  problems	
  with	
  the	
  way	
  
we	
  are	
  thinking	
  about	
  progress,	
  problem	
  solving,	
  and	
  the	
  future	
  condition	
  of	
  our	
  
planet	
  (sustainability	
  versus	
  resilience).	
  Smart	
  cities	
  will	
  be	
  analyzed	
  through	
  
multiple	
  lenses	
  that	
  implore	
  examples	
  and	
  arguments	
  crafted	
  by	
  key	
  individuals	
  
behind	
  urban	
  design.	
  The	
  recently	
  built	
  South	
  Korean	
  smart	
  city,	
  New	
  Songdo	
  City,	
  
is	
  analyzed	
  using	
  key	
  concepts	
  such	
  as,	
  Christopher	
  Alexander’s	
  “A	
  City	
  is	
  Not	
  a	
  
Tree”	
  and	
  Steven	
  Johnson’s	
  exploration	
  of	
  emergence.	
  Alexander’s	
  claim	
  that	
  
designers	
  are	
  thinking	
  about	
  cities	
  in	
  the	
  wrong	
  way	
  (i.e.	
  as	
  a	
  tree	
  structure	
  instead	
  
of	
  a	
  much	
  more	
  complex	
  structure)	
  will	
  support	
  postmodern	
  scientific	
  thought	
  and	
  
complexity	
  thinking.	
  Johnson’s	
  concept	
  of	
  complex	
  adaptive	
  systems	
  and	
  emergent	
  
properties	
  explains	
  the	
  organic,	
  bottom-­‐up	
  structure	
  from	
  which	
  cities	
  naturally	
  
develop	
  and	
  the	
  extreme	
  complexity	
  and	
  interconnectedness	
  at	
  which	
  our	
  society	
  is	
  
currently	
  operating.	
  The	
  street-­‐level	
  actions	
  and	
  beliefs	
  of	
  Jane	
  Jacobs,	
  author	
  of	
  The	
  
Life	
  and	
  Death	
  of	
  the	
  American	
  City,	
  will	
  support	
  Johnson’s	
  claims.	
  These	
  ideas	
  will	
  
be	
  contrasted	
  with	
  the	
  top-­‐down	
  organizational	
  approach	
  in	
  which	
  smart	
  city	
  
designers	
  are	
  undertaking.	
  	
  
	
  
Theme	
  1:	
  Sustainability	
  vs.	
  Resiliency	
  
	
  
When	
  evaluating	
  the	
  effectiveness	
  of	
  smart	
  cities,	
  distinctions	
  must	
  be	
  made	
  
between	
  the	
  term	
  sustainability,	
  specifically	
  sustainable	
  development,	
  and	
  resiliency.	
  
Defining	
  either	
  term	
  is	
  difficult	
  since	
  they	
  both	
  encompass	
  a	
  broad	
  variety	
  of	
  
concepts	
  and	
  practices.	
  One	
  of	
  the	
  most	
  widely	
  accepted	
  descriptions	
  of	
  sustainable	
  
development	
  is	
  found	
  in	
  the	
  United	
  Nations’	
  1987	
  Brundtland	
  Report,	
  which	
  says,	
  
“Sustainable	
  development	
  is	
  development	
  that	
  meets	
  the	
  needs	
  of	
  the	
  present	
  
without	
  compromising	
  the	
  ability	
  of	
  future	
  generations	
  to	
  meet	
  their	
  own	
  needs”	
  
  3	
  
(Development	
  and	
  Economic	
  Co-­‐operation).	
  The	
  importance	
  of	
  resilience	
  becomes	
  
evident	
  upon	
  the	
  realization	
  that	
  sustainable	
  development	
  is	
  a	
  contradictory	
  term	
  
since	
  it	
  is	
  impossible	
  for	
  anything	
  physical	
  to	
  grow	
  indefinitely	
  (Caring	
  for	
  the	
  
Earth).	
  At	
  some	
  point	
  every	
  system	
  reaches	
  a	
  point	
  when	
  growth	
  is	
  no	
  longer	
  
possible	
  and	
  collapse	
  happens.	
  Theme	
  2	
  will	
  demonstrate	
  why	
  society	
  is	
  nearing	
  
peak	
  growth	
  and	
  the	
  reason	
  we	
  should	
  be	
  focusing	
  on	
  resilience	
  building	
  instead	
  of	
  
sustainable	
  development.	
  Sustainability	
  and	
  resilience	
  differ	
  in	
  the	
  following	
  ways:	
  
	
  	
  
• Sustainability	
  operates	
  under	
  the	
  assumption	
  that	
  there	
  is	
  still	
  time	
  to	
  
change	
  society’s	
  destructive	
  habits	
  and	
  prevent	
  collapse.	
  Resilience	
  operates	
  
under	
  the	
  assumption	
  that	
  it	
  is	
  too	
  late	
  to	
  correct	
  certain	
  issues	
  and	
  prepares	
  
for	
  unavoidable	
  problems.	
  	
  
• Resilience	
  refers	
  to	
  the	
  ability	
  of	
  a	
  system	
  to	
  withstand	
  a	
  shock	
  by	
  adapting	
  
and	
  changing	
  without	
  sacrificing	
  its	
  fundamental	
  structure	
  and	
  organization.	
  
Sustainability	
  does	
  not	
  even	
  anticipate	
  a	
  shock.	
  
• 	
  Sustainability	
  views	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm”	
  as	
  solvable	
  and	
  curable.	
  Resiliency	
  
plans	
  for	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm’s”	
  worst	
  case	
  scenario	
  (Newman,	
  Beatley,	
  Boyer	
  
2009,	
  6).	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  focusing	
  predominantly	
  on	
  sustainability.	
  Constructed	
  around	
  the	
  
turn	
  of	
  the	
  new	
  millennium,	
  South	
  Korea’s	
  smart	
  city,	
  New	
  Songdo	
  City,	
  
demonstrates	
  how	
  most	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  approaching	
  eco-­‐design.	
  The	
  city	
  boasts	
  
features	
  such	
  as	
  an	
  electric	
  public	
  transit	
  system	
  and	
  a	
  ubiquitous	
  communication	
  
system,	
  which	
  aims	
  to	
  digitally	
  connect	
  everyone	
  and	
  everything.	
  The	
  city	
  is	
  
designed	
  to	
  encourage	
  walking	
  and	
  cycling	
  with	
  open	
  space	
  and	
  public	
  parks	
  
accounting	
  for	
  about	
  forty	
  percent	
  of	
  the	
  city’s	
  total	
  area.	
  For	
  longer	
  distances,	
  the	
  
electric	
  rail	
  system	
  will	
  ideally	
  reduce	
  motorized	
  vehicle	
  usage.	
  The	
  ubiquitous	
  
approach	
  reduces	
  energy	
  consumption	
  and	
  the	
  use	
  of	
  environmentally	
  harmful	
  
vehicles	
  by	
  encouraging	
  citizens	
  to	
  converse	
  screen-­‐to-­‐screen	
  in	
  lieu	
  of	
  face-­‐to-­‐face	
  
interaction.	
  In	
  Songdo,	
  for	
  example,	
  visiting,	
  business	
  meetings,	
  and	
  even	
  some	
  
schooling	
  are	
  conducted	
  virtually	
  (Songdo	
  IBD).	
  Sustainability	
  and	
  a	
  ubiquitous	
  
approach	
  are	
  part	
  of	
  most	
  smart	
  city	
  aspirations;	
  though	
  the	
  intentions	
  are	
  good,	
  the	
  
thinking	
  and	
  designs	
  are	
  drastically	
  decreasing	
  resilience.	
  
	
  
Resilience	
  means	
  preparing	
  for	
  the	
  worst,	
  or	
  performing	
  disaster	
  risk	
  reduction	
  
(DRR).	
  There	
  is	
  no	
  exact	
  formula	
  for	
  building	
  resilience	
  because,	
  like	
  progress,	
  it	
  is	
  
subjectively	
  dependent	
  on	
  place	
  and	
  time.	
  Coastal	
  cities	
  will	
  need	
  to	
  consider	
  rising	
  
sea	
  levels	
  and	
  hurricane	
  threats.	
  New	
  Orleans	
  is	
  an	
  example	
  of	
  a	
  city	
  that	
  could	
  have	
  
saved	
  lives	
  and	
  lessened	
  damage	
  costs	
  by	
  anticipating	
  the	
  worst-­‐case	
  scenario	
  in	
  the	
  
event	
  of	
  a	
  hurricane	
  strike.	
  When	
  Hurricane	
  Katrina	
  hit	
  New	
  Orleans	
  in	
  2005,	
  little	
  
DRR	
  had	
  been	
  done.	
  Properly	
  performed	
  DRR	
  would	
  have	
  identified	
  high-­‐risk	
  
factors	
  such	
  as	
  the	
  city’s	
  weak	
  levee	
  and	
  poor	
  highway	
  system	
  that	
  provided	
  citizens	
  
with	
  only	
  one	
  way	
  out	
  of	
  the	
  city.	
  The	
  catastrophic	
  2011	
  earthquake	
  in	
  Christchurch	
  
offers	
  another	
  example	
  of	
  how	
  better	
  DRR	
  could	
  have	
  been	
  performed	
  to	
  prevent	
  
unnecessary	
  casualties	
  and	
  city	
  destruction.	
  Both	
  cities	
  are	
  now	
  rebuilding	
  with	
  
  4	
  
better	
  preventative	
  measures,	
  but	
  unfortunately,	
  it	
  took	
  a	
  large-­‐scale	
  disaster	
  to	
  
convince	
  city	
  officials	
  of	
  the	
  importance	
  of	
  DRR	
  (UNISDR).	
  One	
  has	
  to	
  wonder	
  if	
  it	
  
will	
  take	
  a	
  similar	
  global	
  disaster	
  before	
  most	
  cities	
  start	
  taking	
  resiliency	
  building,	
  
such	
  as	
  DRR,	
  more	
  seriously.	
  
	
  
If	
  a	
  city	
  is	
  not	
  walkable,	
  then	
  it	
  is	
  not	
  resilient.	
  Walking	
  and	
  cycling	
  decrease	
  carbon	
  
dioxide	
  emissions,	
  alleviate	
  reliance	
  on	
  a	
  motorized-­‐transport	
  system,	
  and	
  frees	
  
society	
  from	
  its	
  dependence	
  on	
  energy.	
  But	
  even	
  more	
  significantly,	
  a	
  walking-­‐based	
  
city	
  builds	
  community—the	
  core	
  of	
  resilience.	
  It	
  is	
  important	
  to	
  ask	
  questions	
  such	
  
as:	
  what	
  are	
  the	
  processes	
  by	
  which	
  we	
  can	
  get	
  groups	
  of	
  people	
  to	
  collaborate	
  and	
  
work	
  together?	
  Facilitating	
  “localism”	
  will	
  make	
  citizens	
  more	
  aware	
  of	
  the	
  
problems	
  facing	
  their	
  community	
  and	
  generate	
  a	
  better	
  sense	
  of	
  “we’re	
  all	
  in	
  this	
  
together”	
  (Newman	
  136).	
  Community	
  building	
  will	
  also	
  give	
  citizens	
  a	
  greater	
  voice	
  
and	
  help	
  return	
  city	
  design	
  to	
  a	
  bottom-­‐up	
  structure.	
  No	
  one	
  understood	
  the	
  
importance	
  of	
  civic	
  participation	
  and	
  communication	
  better	
  than	
  urban-­‐activist,	
  
Jane	
  Jacobs	
  (discussed	
  in	
  greater	
  detail	
  later),	
  who	
  recognized	
  a	
  city	
  based	
  around	
  
the	
  sidewalk,	
  and	
  not	
  the	
  street,	
  was	
  important	
  for	
  generating	
  a	
  flow	
  of	
  information	
  
between	
  city	
  residents.	
  Sidewalks	
  are	
  a	
  catalyst	
  for	
  “relatively	
  high-­‐bandwidth	
  
communication	
  between	
  total	
  strangers,	
  and	
  they	
  mix	
  large	
  numbers	
  of	
  individuals	
  
in	
  random	
  configurations…	
  Sidewalks	
  provide	
  both	
  the	
  right	
  kind	
  and	
  the	
  right	
  
number	
  of	
  local	
  interactions.	
  They	
  are	
  the	
  gap	
  junctions	
  of	
  city	
  life”	
  (Johnson	
  2001,	
  
94).	
  	
  
	
  
Songdo’s	
  ubiquitous	
  technology	
  approach	
  discourages	
  the	
  random	
  sidewalk	
  
encounters	
  Jacobs	
  identified	
  as	
  essential	
  for	
  the	
  city’s	
  community	
  building.	
  By	
  
encouraging	
  walking	
  while	
  also	
  promoting	
  teleconferencing	
  instead	
  of	
  traveling,	
  
Songdo	
  is	
  contradicting	
  itself.	
  If	
  the	
  chance	
  meetings	
  of	
  strangers	
  are	
  lost,	
  then	
  the	
  
sense	
  of	
  “localism”	
  will	
  also	
  vanish.	
  By	
  increasing	
  sustainable	
  practices	
  with	
  
ubiquitous	
  connectivity,	
  smart	
  cities	
  forego	
  a	
  primary	
  benefit	
  of	
  sidewalks.	
  A	
  
walkable,	
  localized	
  city	
  is	
  resilient,	
  but	
  a	
  city	
  where	
  people	
  leave	
  their	
  homes	
  less	
  
often	
  is	
  not;	
  it	
  is	
  only	
  sustainable.	
  
	
  
Theme	
  2:	
  Panarchy	
  and	
  Exponential	
  Growth	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  propose	
  a	
  technological	
  interconnectedness	
  design,	
  and	
  while	
  this	
  
concept	
  could	
  result	
  in	
  more	
  sustainable	
  living	
  (by	
  reducing	
  travel	
  time	
  and	
  
increasing	
  efficiency	
  in	
  the	
  case	
  of	
  Songdo),	
  it	
  will	
  ultimately	
  cause	
  more	
  harm	
  than	
  
good,	
  largely	
  by	
  decreasing	
  resilience.	
  As	
  a	
  city	
  becomes	
  more	
  connected,	
  it	
  loses	
  its	
  
ability	
  to	
  adapt	
  since	
  a	
  shock	
  to	
  one	
  part	
  of	
  the	
  system	
  will	
  affect	
  all	
  other	
  connected	
  
parts.	
  Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  “places	
  whose	
  possibilities	
  are	
  activated	
  by	
  the	
  arcane	
  
workings	
  of	
  computational	
  systems,	
  to	
  the	
  degree	
  that	
  they	
  are	
  incapable	
  of	
  
functioning	
  as	
  intended,	
  should	
  those	
  systems	
  default”	
  (Greenfield	
  2013).	
  
Adaptability	
  is	
  another	
  necessary	
  element	
  of	
  resilience.	
  
	
  
Evaluating	
  the	
  progress	
  (or	
  lack	
  thereof)	
  of	
  American	
  industrial	
  cities	
  demonstrates	
  
the	
  importance	
  of	
  maintaining	
  an	
  adaptable,	
  and	
  thus	
  resilient,	
  city	
  model.	
  In	
  the	
  
  5	
  
1950s,	
  six	
  cities—Buffalo,	
  Cleveland,	
  Detroit,	
  New	
  Orleans,	
  Pittsburg,	
  and	
  St.	
  Louis—
were	
  prospering	
  urban	
  areas.	
  Raw	
  and	
  industrial,	
  they	
  were	
  places	
  where	
  the	
  
average	
  high	
  school	
  graduate	
  could	
  make	
  a	
  comfortable	
  living	
  working	
  a	
  plant's	
  
assembly	
  line.	
  Sixty	
  years	
  later,	
  in	
  an	
  age	
  where	
  education	
  is	
  increasingly	
  important	
  
and	
  robots	
  and	
  computers	
  have	
  assumed	
  much	
  of	
  the	
  industrial	
  grunt	
  work,	
  these	
  
six	
  cities	
  have	
  lost	
  more	
  than	
  half	
  of	
  their	
  population.	
  But	
  why	
  is	
  it	
  places	
  such	
  as	
  
Detroit	
  and	
  Pittsburg	
  have	
  declined,	
  while	
  other	
  previous	
  industrial	
  cities	
  have	
  
flourished?	
  Why,	
  for	
  example,	
  is	
  Boston	
  no	
  longer	
  associated	
  with	
  smokestacks	
  
despite	
  practically	
  being	
  the	
  capital	
  of	
  the	
  American	
  Industrial	
  Revolution?	
  The	
  
answer	
  can	
  be	
  explained	
  by	
  adaptation	
  and	
  a	
  return	
  to	
  fundamental	
  practices	
  that	
  
initially	
  made	
  cities	
  successful—“specialized	
  skills,	
  small	
  enterprises,	
  and	
  strong	
  
connections	
  with	
  the	
  outside	
  world”	
  (Glaeser	
  2011,	
  42).	
  Many	
  industrial	
  cities	
  fell	
  
because	
  they	
  mistakenly	
  abandoned	
  vital	
  aspects	
  of	
  city	
  life,	
  and	
  instead,	
  tried	
  to	
  
breed	
  prosperity	
  through	
  building	
  housing	
  projects,	
  high-­‐rise	
  offices,	
  and	
  high-­‐tech	
  
transit	
  systems.	
  These	
  mistakes	
  were	
  a	
  result	
  of	
  “the	
  all-­‐too-­‐common	
  error	
  of	
  
confusing	
  a	
  city,	
  which	
  is	
  really	
  a	
  mass	
  of	
  connected	
  humanity,	
  with	
  its	
  structures”	
  
(Glaeser	
  43).	
  
	
  
Alexander	
  says	
  the	
  mind	
  cannot	
  fully	
  comprehend	
  the	
  extreme	
  overlap	
  between	
  
forces,	
  however,	
  smart	
  cities	
  believe	
  computers	
  might	
  be	
  the	
  answer	
  to	
  human’s	
  
limitations	
  (i.e.	
  with	
  the	
  correct	
  programming	
  and	
  mathematics,	
  a	
  computer	
  could	
  
potentially	
  predict	
  future	
  outcomes	
  by	
  evaluating	
  the	
  entirety	
  of	
  a	
  city’s	
  interactive	
  
elements).	
  Smart	
  city	
  designers	
  have	
  identified	
  computers	
  as	
  being	
  more	
  equipped	
  
to	
  interpret	
  complex	
  adaptive	
  systems,	
  but	
  they	
  are	
  still	
  falling	
  into	
  the	
  Cartesian	
  
trap.	
  Technology	
  such	
  as	
  computer	
  analytics	
  and	
  communication	
  could	
  play	
  a	
  
beneficial	
  role	
  in	
  solving	
  problems,	
  but	
  it	
  should	
  not	
  be	
  seen	
  as	
  the	
  solution.	
  Smart	
  
cities	
  are	
  placing	
  too	
  much	
  faith	
  in	
  the	
  power	
  of	
  predictive	
  and	
  communicative	
  
digital	
  systems	
  to	
  solve	
  problems.	
  Supporting	
  Jacobs’	
  love	
  for	
  the	
  simplistic	
  power	
  
of	
  the	
  sidewalk	
  and	
  the	
  empowerment	
  of	
  civil	
  society,	
  Peter	
  Newman,	
  Timothy	
  
Beatley,	
  and	
  Heather	
  Boyer,	
  authors	
  of	
  Resilient	
  Cities,	
  say,	
  “change	
  is	
  not	
  primarily	
  
about	
  technology,	
  but	
  about	
  how	
  cities	
  function	
  at	
  a	
  basic	
  cultural	
  level”	
  (Newman	
  
85).	
  Smart	
  cities	
  want	
  to	
  solve	
  problems,	
  as	
  well	
  as	
  prevent	
  them	
  from	
  ever	
  
occurring,	
  by	
  utilizing	
  programmed	
  technology	
  to	
  turn	
  the	
  city	
  into	
  a	
  computerized	
  
machine—something	
  that	
  is	
  proving	
  much	
  more	
  difficult	
  than	
  reductionist	
  thinkers	
  
anticipated.	
  
	
  
Designers	
  are	
  leveraging	
  flawed	
  mechanistic	
  thought	
  to	
  quite	
  literally	
  transform	
  a	
  
city	
  into	
  a	
  machine.	
  Evidence	
  of	
  a	
  failed	
  effort	
  can	
  be	
  found	
  in	
  IBM’s	
  recent	
  attempt	
  
to	
  develop	
  a	
  computer	
  capable	
  of	
  predicting	
  a	
  city’s	
  future	
  happenings.	
  IBM	
  
described	
  their	
  creation	
  as	
  a	
  “decision	
  support	
  system”	
  that	
  intended	
  to	
  help	
  policy	
  
makers	
  by	
  informing	
  them	
  of	
  the	
  ripple	
  effects	
  that	
  would	
  occur	
  due	
  to	
  the	
  city’s	
  
interdependencies.	
  Using	
  a	
  system	
  of	
  algorithms,	
  IBM	
  quickly	
  realized	
  their	
  
overzealous	
  ambitions.	
  Quickly	
  accumulating	
  more	
  than	
  seven	
  thousand	
  equations,	
  
the	
  program	
  spiraled	
  out	
  of	
  control	
  and	
  crashed	
  (Townsend	
  83).	
  IBM’s	
  fiasco	
  is	
  a	
  
reminder	
  of	
  the	
  city’s	
  immense	
  complexity	
  and	
  difficulty	
  humans	
  face	
  in	
  trying	
  to	
  
develop	
  solutions	
  for	
  significant	
  problems.	
  	
  
  6	
  
	
  
A	
  digitally	
  controlled	
  city	
  is	
  not	
  the	
  answer	
  to	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm,”	
  but	
  instead,	
  the	
  
latest	
  entry	
  in	
  a	
  long	
  line	
  of	
  prior	
  transitory	
  and	
  short-­‐term	
  technological	
  fixes.	
  
Advancements	
  in	
  transportation	
  are	
  responsible	
  for	
  sprawling,	
  inefficient	
  urban	
  
design,	
  whereas,	
  increased	
  global	
  interconnection	
  is	
  the	
  result	
  of	
  progress	
  in	
  
communication	
  technology.	
  Now,	
  companies	
  designing	
  smart	
  cities,	
  such	
  as	
  IBM,	
  are	
  
turning	
  to	
  technology	
  once	
  again	
  to	
  prepare	
  for	
  the	
  great	
  urban	
  migration	
  and	
  
coming	
  “perfect	
  storm.”	
  These	
  advancements	
  and	
  worsening	
  conditions	
  have	
  
materialized	
  due	
  to	
  progressive	
  actions	
  taken	
  over	
  hundreds	
  of	
  years.	
  Progress	
  and	
  
time	
  can	
  also	
  be	
  used	
  to	
  consider	
  smart	
  city	
  creation.	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  hoping	
  to	
  leverage	
  the	
  power	
  of	
  computers	
  and	
  analytic	
  software	
  to	
  
generate	
  solutions,	
  however,	
  time	
  is	
  an	
  important	
  factor	
  with	
  rapidly	
  advancing	
  
technology.	
  Relative	
  to	
  other	
  city’s	
  long	
  history	
  of	
  slow	
  emergence	
  and	
  self-­‐
organization,	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  being	
  built	
  at	
  an	
  incredibly	
  fast	
  rate,	
  building	
  
something	
  in	
  a	
  matter	
  of	
  years	
  that	
  previously	
  took	
  hundreds,	
  if	
  not	
  thousands,	
  of	
  
years	
  to	
  develop;	
  Songdo	
  was	
  built	
  in	
  10	
  years,	
  while	
  Rome	
  has	
  a	
  history	
  dating	
  
back	
  thousands	
  of	
  years.	
  Conversely,	
  relative	
  to	
  technology,	
  10	
  years	
  is	
  a	
  long	
  time.	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  being	
  designed	
  around	
  the	
  most	
  current	
  innovative	
  practices,	
  yet	
  by	
  
the	
  time	
  cities	
  are	
  built,	
  they	
  risk	
  already	
  being	
  technologically	
  dated.	
  Devising	
  
plausible	
  solutions	
  by	
  today’s	
  assumptions	
  risks	
  underestimating	
  or	
  incorrectly	
  
predicting	
  sudden	
  and	
  rapid	
  change.	
  As	
  Townsend	
  explains,	
  “With	
  smart	
  cities,	
  
trends	
  that	
  only	
  recently	
  appeared	
  small	
  on	
  the	
  horizon	
  now	
  loom	
  larger	
  and	
  larger.	
  
Everything	
  seems	
  to	
  be	
  speeding	
  up,	
  getting	
  bigger,	
  or	
  getting	
  worse	
  than	
  was	
  
expected”	
  (Townsend	
  322).	
  The	
  idea	
  follows	
  closely	
  with	
  the	
  relentless	
  pursuit	
  of	
  
perfection	
  and	
  how	
  it	
  is	
  defining	
  a	
  more	
  concrete	
  rule-­‐set.	
  
	
  
Realizing	
  the	
  role	
  of	
  innovation	
  in	
  preventing	
  collapse	
  will	
  help	
  explain	
  the	
  flaws	
  in	
  
sustainable	
  thinking	
  and	
  the	
  need	
  for	
  increased	
  resilience.	
  In	
  the	
  Ted	
  Talk,	
  “The	
  
Surprising	
  Math	
  of	
  Cities,”	
  physicist	
  Geoffrey	
  West	
  talks	
  about	
  the	
  rapid	
  growth	
  of	
  
cities;	
  when	
  a	
  city	
  doubles	
  in	
  size,	
  it	
  more	
  than	
  doubles	
  in	
  nearly	
  every	
  other	
  aspect	
  
including	
  energy	
  consumption,	
  crime,	
  wealth,	
  and	
  consumerism.	
  As	
  the	
  popularity	
  
of	
  cities	
  continues	
  growing	
  at	
  steeper	
  rates,	
  humanity’s	
  consumption	
  and	
  
production	
  rates	
  will	
  similarly	
  increase,	
  which	
  will	
  eventually	
  cause	
  us	
  to	
  reach	
  a	
  
level	
  that	
  can	
  no	
  longer	
  sustain	
  the	
  growth	
  rate.	
  When	
  this	
  level	
  is	
  reached,	
  collapse	
  
follows.	
  West	
  believes	
  there	
  have	
  been	
  several	
  times	
  in	
  history	
  when	
  society	
  has	
  
been	
  on	
  the	
  verge	
  of	
  collapse,	
  but	
  society	
  found	
  a	
  way	
  to	
  prevent	
  it	
  through	
  
innovation.	
  Each	
  time	
  the	
  growth	
  rate	
  is	
  maximized,	
  a	
  new	
  innovation	
  is	
  introduced	
  
and	
  the	
  cycle	
  begins	
  again.	
  The	
  issue	
  is	
  that	
  each	
  time	
  the	
  growth	
  rate	
  is	
  restarted;	
  it	
  
takes	
  less	
  time	
  to	
  reach	
  a	
  point	
  of	
  collapse,	
  thus	
  decreasing	
  the	
  time	
  before	
  a	
  new	
  
innovation	
  is	
  needed	
  (“The	
  Surprising	
  Math”	
  2011).	
  	
  
	
  
The	
  “Waves	
  of	
  Innovation”	
  theory	
  and	
  graph	
  (below)	
  presented	
  in	
  Resilient	
  Cities	
  
supplements	
  West’s	
  observations.	
  The	
  theory	
  argues	
  we	
  are	
  entering	
  the	
  Sixth	
  
Wave	
  of	
  industrialism,	
  which	
  is	
  “a	
  complete	
  reorientation	
  of	
  industrial	
  society	
  to	
  a	
  
different	
  set	
  of	
  technologies	
  and	
  a	
  rethinking	
  of	
  how	
  we	
  organize	
  cities”	
  (Newman	
  
  7	
  
52).	
  The	
  graph	
  that	
  explains	
  the	
  theory	
  depicts	
  each	
  wave	
  as	
  building	
  upon	
  the	
  
previous	
  in	
  the	
  form	
  of	
  an	
  arch	
  that	
  becomes	
  taller	
  and	
  skinnier.	
  The	
  point	
  at	
  which	
  
one	
  wave	
  overlaps	
  with	
  the	
  next	
  is	
  representative	
  of	
  a	
  potential	
  systemic	
  tipping	
  
point	
  for	
  collapse.	
  With	
  “Innovation”	
  on	
  the	
  y-­‐axis	
  and	
  “Time”	
  on	
  the	
  x-­‐axis,	
  
increasingly	
  taller	
  and	
  narrower	
  arches	
  means	
  innovation	
  is	
  advancing	
  at	
  an	
  
exponential	
  rate.	
  West’s	
  “Surprising	
  Math	
  of	
  Cities”	
  and	
  the	
  “Sixth	
  Wave”	
  theory	
  
explain	
  that	
  with	
  each	
  innovation,	
  growth	
  happens	
  quicker	
  and	
  there	
  is	
  less	
  time	
  to	
  
innovate	
  before	
  collapse.	
  	
  Eventually	
  we	
  will	
  reach	
  a	
  wave	
  in	
  which	
  the	
  transition	
  is	
  
too	
  quick/steep	
  and	
  not	
  manageable.	
  Building	
  sustainably	
  will	
  slow	
  the	
  progression	
  
of	
  these	
  arches	
  down,	
  but	
  it	
  will	
  only	
  postpone	
  the	
  inevitable	
  collapse.	
  	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
Similarly,	
  Buzz	
  Hollings’	
  “panarchy	
  theory”	
  explains	
  why	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm”	
  of	
  
global	
  problems	
  must	
  be	
  addressed	
  with	
  great	
  urgency	
  and	
  why	
  growth	
  cannot	
  
continue	
  indefinitely.	
  His	
  theory	
  proposes	
  that	
  all	
  systems	
  go	
  through	
  an	
  “adaptive	
  
cycle	
  of	
  growth,	
  collapse,	
  regeneration,	
  and	
  again	
  growth”	
  (Homer-­‐Dixon	
  2006,	
  
226).	
  According	
  to	
  the	
  model,	
  as	
  a	
  system	
  grows	
  it	
  increases	
  in	
  interconnectivity	
  
and	
  efficiency,	
  but	
  ultimately	
  becomes	
  less	
  resilient	
  since	
  high	
  connectivity	
  reduces	
  
a	
  system’s	
  ability	
  to	
  absorb	
  and	
  withstand	
  shock.	
  	
  
	
  
  8	
  
	
  (Thomas	
  Homer-­‐Dixon)	
  
	
  
Hollings	
  uses	
  the	
  ecosystem	
  of	
  a	
  forest	
  to	
  further	
  demonstrate	
  this	
  concept:	
  During	
  
the	
  early	
  growth	
  phase,	
  the	
  number	
  of	
  animals	
  and	
  plants	
  rapidly	
  increase	
  as	
  they	
  
arrive	
  to	
  exploit	
  the	
  forest’s	
  ecological	
  benefits.	
  The	
  flows	
  of	
  energy,	
  activity,	
  and	
  
genetic	
  material	
  become	
  more	
  complex.	
  As	
  this	
  happens,	
  the	
  forest	
  develops	
  more	
  
ways	
  to	
  maintain	
  stability	
  and	
  self-­‐regulate.	
  By	
  the	
  time	
  it	
  reaches	
  latter	
  stages	
  of	
  
the	
  growth	
  phase,	
  “the	
  mechanisms	
  of	
  self-­‐regulation	
  become	
  highly	
  diverse	
  and	
  
finely	
  tuned.”	
  This	
  results	
  in	
  all	
  species	
  adapting	
  and	
  becoming	
  dependent	
  on	
  a	
  
specific	
  range	
  of	
  circumstances	
  so	
  that	
  “when	
  a	
  shock	
  pushes	
  the	
  forest	
  far	
  outside	
  
that	
  range,	
  it	
  can’t	
  cope.	
  Also,	
  the	
  forest’s	
  high	
  connectedness	
  helps	
  any	
  shock	
  travel	
  
faster	
  across	
  the	
  ecosystem”	
  (Homer-­‐Dixon	
  227).	
  We	
  are	
  currently	
  in	
  the	
  late	
  
growth	
  phase	
  and	
  on	
  the	
  cusp	
  of	
  collapse,	
  but	
  resilient	
  cities	
  offer	
  a	
  solution	
  for	
  
preventing	
  the	
  extreme	
  collapse	
  that	
  would	
  result	
  in	
  a	
  massive	
  decrease	
  in	
  
population	
  and	
  in	
  political/economic/social	
  complexity	
  (Newman	
  37).	
  	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  the	
  latest	
  entry	
  in	
  a	
  list	
  of	
  innovations	
  that	
  temporarily	
  postpone	
  
collapse.	
  Individuals	
  behind	
  Songdo	
  claim	
  to	
  have	
  built	
  a	
  city	
  of	
  the	
  future,	
  but	
  they	
  
are	
  actually	
  building	
  for	
  the	
  past.	
  Sustainability	
  was	
  a	
  solution	
  when	
  there	
  was	
  still	
  
time	
  to	
  reverse	
  humanity’s	
  progressive	
  actions	
  and	
  prevent	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm,”	
  but	
  
that	
  time	
  has	
  long	
  passed.	
  The	
  longer	
  each	
  new	
  innovation	
  delays	
  collapse,	
  society	
  
advances	
  one	
  step	
  higher	
  on	
  an	
  unstable	
  ladder	
  destined	
  to	
  tumble.	
  	
  
	
  
Theme	
  3:	
  Cartesian	
  thought	
  vs.	
  Complexity	
  Thinking	
  
	
  
Sustainability	
  and	
  resiliency	
  fit	
  into	
  a	
  larger	
  scope	
  of	
  conceptual	
  debate	
  between	
  
Cartesian	
  thought	
  and	
  complexity	
  thinking.	
  Modern	
  Cartesian	
  thought	
  began	
  in	
  the	
  
17th	
  century	
  when	
  popular	
  philosophers	
  like	
  Rene	
  Descartes	
  propagated	
  a	
  new	
  
  9	
  
perspective,	
  which	
  saw	
  the	
  natural	
  world	
  as	
  mechanistic,	
  predictable,	
  and	
  
consequently,	
  controllable:	
  “To	
  the	
  modern	
  mind,	
  nature	
  is	
  conceived	
  as	
  something	
  
that	
  can	
  be	
  understood,	
  mastered,	
  and	
  put	
  to	
  human	
  service”	
  (Kellner	
  and	
  Best	
  
1997,	
  200).	
  Cartesian	
  Dualism	
  is	
  the	
  separation	
  of	
  the	
  mind	
  and	
  body	
  or,	
  more	
  
generally,	
  the	
  separation	
  of	
  the	
  mental	
  and	
  physical.	
  Thinking	
  about	
  the	
  world	
  as	
  
something	
  that	
  could	
  be	
  manipulated	
  according	
  to	
  the	
  laws	
  of	
  physics	
  was	
  much	
  
different	
  from	
  previous	
  perspectives	
  that	
  viewed	
  the	
  entire	
  world	
  as	
  living	
  entities	
  
(e.g.	
  Mother	
  Nature	
  and	
  Father	
  Sky).	
  Cartesian	
  thought	
  and	
  its	
  controlling	
  attitude	
  
towards	
  nature	
  embedded	
  itself	
  within	
  cultural	
  practices,	
  such	
  as	
  French	
  garden	
  
architecture	
  of	
  the	
  17th	
  and	
  18th	
  centuries:	
  Naturally	
  spawning	
  and	
  self-­‐organizing	
  
flowers	
  and	
  shrubs	
  were	
  reconfigured	
  and	
  sectioned	
  into	
  patterns	
  until	
  the	
  artfully	
  
designed	
  garden	
  resembled	
  a	
  “mathematician’s	
  blueprint”	
  (Brammann	
  2004).	
  Smart	
  
cities	
  are	
  being	
  reimagined	
  in	
  a	
  similar	
  fashion,	
  granted	
  on	
  a	
  much	
  grander	
  scale.	
  
	
  
Many	
  smart	
  cites	
  are	
  being	
  built	
  entirely	
  at	
  once	
  with	
  the	
  construction	
  process	
  
taking	
  a	
  structural	
  approach	
  by	
  following	
  a	
  pre-­‐planned	
  city	
  blueprint	
  that	
  outlines	
  
the	
  city	
  as	
  a	
  grid	
  with	
  space	
  and	
  place	
  clearly	
  defined	
  and	
  separated.	
  In	
  the	
  book	
  
Emergence,	
  Steven	
  Johnson	
  says	
  cities	
  are	
  comparable	
  to	
  nature	
  because	
  they	
  are	
  
self-­‐organizing	
  meaning	
  they	
  are	
  not	
  built	
  or	
  conceived	
  by	
  a	
  higher	
  authority,	
  but	
  
rather,	
  gradually	
  emerge	
  as	
  many	
  smaller	
  elements	
  converge	
  in	
  one	
  collective	
  area.	
  
Much	
  like	
  the	
  evolutionary	
  growth	
  and	
  development	
  of	
  plants,	
  this	
  bottom-­‐up	
  
process	
  (as	
  opposed	
  to	
  top-­‐down)	
  was	
  slow	
  and	
  self-­‐occurring	
  without	
  any	
  
preconceived	
  notions.	
  Because	
  of	
  these	
  qualities,	
  cities	
  are	
  “complex	
  adaptive	
  
systems	
  that	
  display	
  emergent	
  behavior”	
  (Johnson	
  18).	
  Contrary	
  to	
  pre-­‐modern	
  
cities,	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  no	
  longer	
  emergent	
  or	
  self-­‐organizing	
  properties	
  because	
  
they	
  are	
  intentionally	
  planned	
  and	
  built.	
  	
  
	
  
Cartesian	
  thought	
  began	
  in	
  the	
  18th	
  century,	
  but	
  it	
  wasn’t	
  until	
  the	
  Industrial	
  
Revolution	
  that	
  it	
  inspired	
  a	
  greater	
  authoritative	
  attitude	
  towards	
  cities	
  and	
  nature.	
  
James	
  Scott,	
  author	
  of	
  Seeing	
  Like	
  a	
  State,	
  refers	
  to	
  the	
  progressive	
  attitude	
  and	
  
relentless	
  pursuit	
  of	
  efficiency	
  that	
  occurred	
  in	
  Western	
  Europe	
  and	
  North	
  America	
  
from	
  1830	
  to	
  World	
  War	
  I	
  as	
  “high	
  modernism,”	
  which	
  was	
  centered	
  on:	
  
	
  
“A	
  supreme	
  self-­‐confidence	
  about	
  continued	
  linear	
  progress,	
  the	
  
development	
  of	
  scientific	
  and	
  technical	
  knowledge,	
  the	
  expansion	
  of	
  
production,	
  the	
  rational	
  design	
  of	
  social	
  order,	
  the	
  growing	
  satisfaction	
  of	
  
human	
  needs,	
  and,	
  not	
  least,	
  an	
  increasing	
  control	
  over	
  nature	
  (including	
  
human	
  nature)	
  commensurate	
  with	
  scientific	
  understanding	
  of	
  natural	
  laws”	
  
(Scott	
  1998,	
  89-­‐90).	
  
	
  
At	
  the	
  forefront	
  of	
  this	
  extreme	
  Cartesian	
  perspective	
  were	
  individuals	
  such	
  as	
  the	
  
French	
  architect	
  and	
  planner	
  Charles-­‐Edouard	
  Jeanneret,	
  who	
  is	
  better	
  known	
  as	
  Le	
  
Corbusier.	
  He	
  found	
  incongruity	
  and	
  disarray	
  repulsive	
  and	
  sought	
  to	
  design	
  a	
  city	
  
of	
  straight	
  lines	
  and	
  right	
  angles.	
  Le	
  Corbusier	
  envisioned	
  the	
  “ideal”	
  industrial	
  city	
  
with	
  graphic	
  simplicity	
  and	
  feared	
  the	
  chaos	
  of	
  complexity	
  (Scott	
  105-­‐107).	
  He	
  
wanted	
  to	
  standardize	
  entire	
  cities	
  so	
  that	
  every	
  part—from	
  city	
  blocks	
  to	
  door	
  
  10	
  
frames	
  to	
  single	
  screws—adhered	
  to	
  uniform	
  code	
  (Scott	
  109).	
  	
  Christopher	
  
Alexander’s	
  essay	
  “A	
  City	
  is	
  Not	
  a	
  Tree”	
  critiques	
  the	
  simplified	
  approach	
  taken	
  by	
  
urban	
  planners	
  and	
  helps	
  to	
  better	
  understand	
  the	
  problems	
  with	
  the	
  Cartesian	
  
view	
  and	
  “high	
  modernism.”	
  
	
  
Humans	
  have	
  difficulty	
  accepting	
  and	
  interpreting	
  postmodern	
  thought	
  and	
  instead	
  
reduce	
  the	
  city	
  to	
  specified,	
  separated	
  areas	
  because	
  we	
  struggle	
  to	
  comprehend	
  the	
  
entirety	
  of	
  the	
  city’s	
  intricacies.	
  Alexander	
  suggests	
  urban	
  areas	
  are	
  consistently	
  
designed	
  incorrectly	
  because	
  the	
  mind	
  is	
  not	
  capable	
  of	
  comprehending	
  the	
  city’s	
  
full	
  complexity	
  (Alexander	
  1965,	
  18).	
  Instead,	
  human’s	
  primitive	
  psyche	
  leads	
  the	
  
mind	
  to	
  think	
  of	
  the	
  city	
  as	
  a	
  tree	
  structure	
  where	
  “no	
  piece	
  of	
  any	
  unit	
  is	
  ever	
  a	
  
connected	
  to	
  other	
  units,	
  except	
  through	
  the	
  medium	
  of	
  that	
  unit	
  as	
  a	
  whole”	
  
(Alexander	
  10).	
  Exhibiting	
  postmodern	
  thought,	
  Alexander	
  argues	
  the	
  city	
  is	
  far	
  too	
  
complex	
  to	
  be	
  analyzed	
  as	
  a	
  tree	
  due	
  to	
  the	
  tremendous	
  influential	
  overlap	
  between	
  
units,	
  which	
  results	
  in	
  an	
  extremely	
  more	
  interdependent	
  city	
  than	
  a	
  tree	
  structure	
  
permits.	
  Consequently,	
  urban	
  planners	
  are	
  thinking	
  about	
  cities	
  too	
  simplistically:	
  
“It	
  is	
  this	
  lack	
  of	
  structural	
  complexity,	
  characteristics	
  of	
  trees,	
  which	
  is	
  crippling	
  
our	
  conceptions	
  of	
  the	
  city”	
  (Alexander	
  5).	
  Alexander’s	
  differentiation	
  between	
  
thinking	
  about	
  a	
  city	
  as	
  a	
  tree	
  instead	
  of	
  a	
  much	
  more	
  intricate	
  “semilattice”	
  
structure	
  demonstrates	
  the	
  extreme	
  difficulty	
  associated	
  with	
  properly	
  designing	
  a	
  
city.	
  A	
  “semilattice”	
  is	
  a	
  collection	
  of	
  elements	
  that	
  overlap	
  and	
  influence	
  each	
  other,	
  
both	
  directly	
  and	
  indirectly.	
  Ironically,	
  smart	
  cities	
  seek	
  to	
  add	
  another	
  layer	
  of	
  
complexity	
  by	
  creating	
  a	
  more	
  technologically	
  interconnected	
  (ubiquitous)	
  city.	
  
	
  
If	
  cities	
  are	
  to	
  distance	
  themselves	
  from	
  the	
  Cartesian	
  design,	
  then	
  embracing	
  
complexity	
  thinking	
  is	
  essential.	
  Doing	
  so	
  will	
  shift	
  the	
  perceptions	
  of	
  urban	
  
planners	
  so	
  that	
  they	
  have	
  a	
  “multiple-­‐use,	
  mixed-­‐use	
  view	
  of	
  cities	
  and	
  regions”	
  
(Townsend	
  77).	
  By	
  embracing	
  this	
  new	
  stance,	
  planners	
  will	
  understand	
  that	
  
seemingly	
  unrelated	
  things	
  will	
  often	
  share	
  commonalities	
  and	
  influence	
  with	
  each	
  
other.	
  Schools	
  should	
  not	
  be	
  seen	
  as	
  just	
  schools,	
  nor	
  should	
  libraries	
  be	
  seen	
  as	
  just	
  
libraries,	
  but	
  rather	
  they	
  should	
  be	
  evaluated	
  in	
  terms	
  of	
  how	
  they	
  are	
  related	
  and	
  
affect	
  each	
  other	
  (Townsend	
  77).	
  The	
  university	
  city	
  of	
  Cambridge,	
  for	
  example,	
  
demonstrates	
  that	
  university	
  life	
  overlaps	
  with	
  activities	
  like	
  going	
  to	
  the	
  movies,	
  
having	
  coffee,	
  and	
  pub-­‐crawling.	
  Cambridge	
  is	
  a	
  natural	
  city	
  “where	
  university	
  and	
  
city	
  have	
  grown	
  together	
  gradually,	
  the	
  physical	
  units	
  overlap	
  because	
  they	
  are	
  the	
  
physical	
  residues	
  of	
  city	
  systems	
  and	
  university	
  systems	
  which	
  overlap”	
  (Alexander	
  
14).	
  Cambridge	
  is	
  an	
  example	
  of	
  how	
  progress	
  and	
  growth	
  have	
  created	
  a	
  more	
  
complex	
  system.	
  Understanding	
  the	
  interconnectedness	
  and	
  influence	
  among	
  
different	
  systems	
  is	
  a	
  key	
  element	
  in	
  complexity	
  thinking.	
  Supporters	
  of	
  this	
  
postmodern	
  scientific	
  thinking	
  claim	
  “that	
  the	
  modern	
  scientific	
  paradigm	
  is	
  giving	
  
way	
  in	
  the	
  20th	
  century	
  to	
  a	
  new	
  mode	
  of	
  scientific	
  thinking	
  based	
  on	
  concepts	
  such	
  
as	
  entropy,	
  evolution,	
  organism,	
  indeterminacy,	
  probability,	
  relativity,	
  
complementarity,	
  interpretation,	
  chaos,	
  complexity,	
  and	
  self-­‐organization”	
  (Kellner	
  
and	
  Best	
  195).	
  Many	
  of	
  these	
  concepts	
  are	
  explored	
  throughout	
  this	
  paper.	
  	
  
	
  
  11	
  
The	
  modern	
  Cartesian	
  idea	
  of	
  sustainability	
  advocates	
  for	
  the	
  employment	
  of	
  new	
  
techniques	
  to	
  solve	
  unintended	
  issues	
  caused	
  by	
  previous	
  progressive	
  actions,	
  while	
  
the	
  post-­‐modern	
  (complexity	
  thinking)	
  idea	
  of	
  resilience	
  introduces	
  a	
  different	
  type	
  
of	
  progress—one	
  that	
  acknowledges	
  certain	
  issues	
  cannot	
  be	
  fixed	
  and	
  prepares	
  for	
  
their	
  effects.	
  Resilience	
  is	
  complexity	
  thinking	
  because	
  it	
  understands	
  some	
  things	
  
are	
  beyond	
  the	
  control	
  of	
  humans	
  and	
  exhibits	
  a	
  new	
  type	
  of	
  progressive	
  thought	
  
and	
  action	
  that	
  aims	
  for	
  mitigation	
  instead	
  of	
  fixation.	
  This	
  distinction	
  is	
  important	
  
because	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  addressing	
  and	
  practicing	
  sustainable,	
  but	
  not	
  resilient,	
  
living.	
  As	
  a	
  product	
  of	
  Cartesian	
  thought,	
  smart	
  cities	
  embrace	
  sustainability	
  
because	
  it	
  suggests	
  humans	
  can	
  still	
  determine	
  our	
  destiny.	
  They	
  are	
  not	
  building	
  
for	
  resilience	
  because	
  that	
  would	
  be	
  admitting	
  to	
  a	
  loss	
  of	
  control.	
  Sustainable	
  
thinking	
  is	
  flawed	
  because	
  it	
  often	
  involves	
  simplifying	
  the	
  complex	
  so	
  it	
  can	
  be	
  
“understood,”	
  mastered,	
  and	
  controlled.	
  
	
  
Theme	
  4:	
  Capitalism	
  and	
  Poor	
  
	
  
Johnson	
  supports	
  Alexander’s	
  argument	
  that	
  the	
  mind	
  has	
  a	
  tendency	
  to	
  group	
  and	
  
classify	
  the	
  unknown	
  by	
  writing,	
  “When	
  we	
  see	
  repeated	
  shapes	
  and	
  structures	
  
emerging	
  out	
  of	
  apparent	
  chaos,	
  we	
  can’t	
  help	
  looking	
  for	
  pacemakers”	
  (Johnson	
  
40).	
  A	
  pacemaker	
  is	
  effectively	
  a	
  god-­‐like	
  figure	
  that	
  creates	
  and	
  designs	
  a	
  system.	
  
The	
  absence	
  of	
  a	
  pacemaker	
  is	
  a	
  key	
  aspect	
  of	
  Johnson's	
  emergent	
  properties	
  idea,	
  
which	
  says	
  pre-­‐modern	
  cities	
  spawned	
  from	
  the	
  bottom-­‐up	
  in	
  a	
  self-­‐organizing	
  
fashion.	
  Over	
  time,	
  they	
  slowly	
  became	
  more	
  intricate	
  and	
  interconnected	
  due	
  to	
  
advancing	
  technology	
  and	
  increasing	
  population.	
  They	
  progressed	
  to	
  more	
  complex	
  
“semilattice”	
  structures,	
  without	
  an	
  authority	
  figure	
  overseeing	
  the	
  city’s	
  initial	
  
emergence.	
  With	
  many	
  smart	
  cities	
  being	
  built	
  in	
  a	
  short	
  time,	
  there	
  is	
  now	
  an	
  
apparent	
  pacemaker	
  presence.	
  These	
  pacemakers,	
  who	
  include	
  companies	
  like	
  IBM	
  
Corporation,	
  Siemens	
  AG,	
  and	
  Cisco	
  Systems,	
  are	
  failing	
  to	
  understand	
  the	
  difficulty	
  
in	
  the	
  ambitious	
  task	
  they	
  are	
  undertaking.	
  Pacemakers	
  are:	
  
	
  
“Weaving	
  an	
  array	
  of	
  new	
  technologies	
  –	
  the	
  Internet	
  of	
  Things,	
  predictive	
  
analytics,	
  and	
  ubiquitous	
  video	
  communications	
  –	
  into	
  the	
  city	
  on	
  the	
  scale	
  of	
  
the	
  electrical	
  grid	
  a	
  century	
  ago…much	
  of	
  what	
  they	
  have	
  done	
  to	
  date	
  is	
  
simply	
  cobble	
  together	
  solutions	
  from	
  off-­‐the-­‐shelf	
  components,	
  with	
  little	
  
investment	
  in	
  research	
  and	
  development	
  of	
  new	
  core	
  technologies”	
  
(Townsend	
  10).	
  	
  
	
  
Corporate	
  involvement	
  solidifies	
  the	
  modern	
  city’s	
  transition	
  from	
  a	
  bottom-­‐up	
  to	
  a	
  
top-­‐down	
  construct.	
  Originally,	
  cities	
  were	
  nothing	
  but	
  a	
  self-­‐organizing	
  
manifestation	
  of	
  physical	
  interactions	
  that	
  resulted	
  from	
  a	
  natural	
  clustering	
  of	
  
individuals.	
  Cities	
  gradually	
  became	
  more	
  controlled	
  as	
  patriarchal	
  societies	
  gave	
  
rise	
  to	
  government	
  philosophies.	
  Still,	
  the	
  ruling	
  bodies	
  were	
  overseeing	
  an	
  
originally	
  self-­‐organized	
  structure,	
  which	
  is	
  no	
  longer	
  the	
  case	
  with	
  huge	
  
corporations	
  tackling	
  multi-­‐billion	
  dollar	
  city	
  projects.	
  Adam	
  Greenfield	
  says,	
  “It’s	
  as	
  
if	
  the	
  foundational	
  works	
  of	
  twentieth-­‐century	
  urbanist	
  thought	
  had	
  been	
  
collectively	
  authored	
  by	
  United	
  States	
  Steel,	
  General	
  Motors,	
  the	
  Otis	
  Elevator	
  
  12	
  
Company	
  and	
  Bell	
  Telephone”	
  (Greenfield).	
  	
  
	
  
The	
  fight	
  for	
  the	
  “right	
  to	
  the	
  city”	
  (Harvey	
  2008)	
  between	
  Jane	
  Jacobs	
  and	
  Robert	
  
Moses	
  offers	
  an	
  appropriate	
  example	
  to	
  summarize	
  the	
  high	
  modernist	
  takeover	
  of	
  
the	
  city.	
  As	
  previously	
  mentioned,	
  Jacobs	
  advocated	
  for	
  a	
  city	
  created	
  and	
  run	
  by	
  
citizens—random	
  sidewalk	
  interactions	
  can	
  shape	
  a	
  city—and	
  understood	
  the	
  
implications	
  of	
  top-­‐heavy	
  influence.	
  Moses,	
  an	
  urban-­‐development	
  tycoon,	
  was	
  a	
  
Cartesian	
  mastermind	
  of	
  designing	
  the	
  city	
  like	
  a	
  “tree.”	
  In	
  1961,	
  Moses	
  announced	
  
plans	
  to	
  build	
  a	
  highway	
  through	
  the	
  heart	
  of	
  SoHo,	
  which	
  would	
  disrupt	
  a	
  vibrant	
  
community	
  (shaped	
  from	
  the	
  bottom-­‐up)	
  filled	
  with	
  “artists,	
  writers,	
  Puerto	
  Rican	
  
immigrants,	
  and	
  working-­‐class	
  Italian-­‐Americans”	
  (Johnson	
  50).	
  Jacobs	
  
triumphantly	
  defeated	
  Moses	
  and	
  his	
  destructive	
  plans	
  arguing	
  that	
  learning	
  from	
  
streets	
  that	
  do	
  work	
  is	
  a	
  better	
  solution	
  than	
  bulldozing	
  and	
  starting	
  over.	
  
Unfortunately,	
  Jacobs’	
  victory	
  over	
  the	
  higher	
  controlling	
  bodies	
  is	
  not	
  a	
  common	
  
occurrence.	
  Her	
  work	
  to	
  empower	
  everyday	
  citizens	
  and	
  preserve	
  culture	
  came	
  
from	
  an	
  understanding	
  of	
  cities	
  as	
  complex	
  adaptive	
  systems—products	
  of	
  many	
  
years	
  of	
  self-­‐organization	
  and	
  influences	
  from	
  varied	
  cultures—and	
  from	
  an	
  
understanding	
  that	
  destroying	
  and	
  rebuilding	
  does	
  not	
  solve	
  problems,	
  but	
  rather	
  
only	
  causes	
  more.	
  The	
  rise	
  of	
  smart	
  cities	
  suggests	
  individuals	
  like	
  Johnson	
  and	
  
Jacobs	
  are	
  the	
  minority	
  in	
  the	
  battles	
  against	
  their	
  Robert	
  Moses	
  counterparts.	
  	
  
	
  
A	
  significant	
  problem	
  with	
  smart	
  city	
  design	
  stems	
  from	
  the	
  capitalistic	
  mindset	
  of	
  
current	
  key	
  players	
  who	
  “are	
  making	
  choices,	
  about	
  technology,	
  business,	
  and	
  
governance,	
  with	
  little	
  or	
  no	
  input	
  from	
  the	
  broader	
  community	
  of	
  technologists,	
  
civic	
  leaders,	
  and	
  citizens	
  themselves”	
  (Townsend	
  110).	
  Ultimately,	
  this	
  line	
  of	
  
thinking	
  has	
  resulted	
  in	
  top-­‐heavy	
  input	
  by	
  wealthy	
  individuals	
  and	
  neglect	
  in	
  
listening	
  to	
  the	
  everyday	
  citizen,	
  especially	
  lower-­‐class	
  individuals.	
  Songdo	
  has	
  
publicized	
  itself	
  as	
  a	
  sustainable	
  smart	
  city,	
  yet	
  a	
  closer	
  look	
  reveals	
  the	
  underlying	
  
neoliberal	
  inspiration.	
  	
  
	
  
In	
  2001,	
  the	
  national	
  government	
  granted	
  Songdo’s	
  development	
  rights	
  to	
  the	
  South	
  
Korean	
  company	
  POSCO	
  Engineering	
  and	
  Construction.	
  	
  Partnering	
  with	
  Gale	
  
International,	
  an	
  American	
  based	
  building	
  design	
  firm,	
  the	
  two	
  companies	
  soon	
  
established	
  themselves	
  as	
  the	
  main	
  pacemakers	
  behind	
  Songdo’s	
  development	
  
(Songdo	
  International	
  Business	
  District).	
  Originally	
  designed	
  as	
  a	
  global	
  city	
  for	
  
commerce,	
  the	
  city	
  has	
  assumed	
  an	
  “outward-­‐oriented	
  and	
  relatively	
  cosmopolitan	
  
sensibility.”	
  The	
  city	
  is	
  now	
  branding	
  itself	
  as	
  an	
  “international	
  business	
  hub”	
  
because	
  of	
  its	
  prime	
  location.	
  
	
  
Located	
  near	
  the	
  Incheon	
  International	
  Airport	
  and	
  built	
  within	
  the	
  Free	
  Economic	
  
Zone	
  (IFEZ),	
  Southeast	
  Asia’s	
  first	
  free	
  economic	
  zone,	
  Songdo	
  caters	
  towards	
  
wealthy	
  business	
  travelers	
  and	
  foreign	
  investors.	
  In	
  doing	
  so,	
  Songdo	
  is	
  encouraging	
  
the	
  colonization	
  of	
  international	
  companies	
  that	
  do	
  not	
  have	
  a	
  presence	
  anywhere	
  
else	
  in	
  South	
  Korea.	
  	
  As	
  the	
  prominent	
  global	
  business	
  center	
  of	
  IFEZ,	
  Songdo	
  
citizens	
  have	
  access	
  to	
  goods	
  and	
  services	
  not	
  offered	
  to	
  the	
  rest	
  of	
  South	
  Korea,	
  
such	
  as	
  private	
  medical	
  institutions	
  that	
  can	
  import	
  cheap	
  medical	
  treatments	
  that	
  
  13	
  
are	
  illegal	
  elsewhere	
  in	
  the	
  country	
  (Incheon	
  FEZ	
  Overview).	
  With	
  Songdo	
  under	
  
corporate	
  control	
  and	
  largely	
  influenced	
  by	
  foreign	
  investors,	
  the	
  smart	
  city	
  design	
  
is	
  viewed	
  as	
  a	
  means	
  to	
  attract	
  international	
  and	
  domestic	
  corporations,	
  instead	
  of	
  a	
  
solution	
  to	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm.”	
  	
  
	
  
The	
  freedoms	
  Songdo	
  enjoys	
  by	
  existing	
  within	
  the	
  boundaries	
  of	
  an	
  economic	
  free	
  
zone	
  raise	
  questions	
  about	
  sovereignty	
  issues.	
  The	
  IFEZ	
  allows	
  companies	
  operating	
  
in	
  Songdo	
  certain	
  privileges	
  not	
  permissible	
  by	
  the	
  South	
  Korean	
  government,	
  thus	
  
giving	
  the	
  city	
  autonomous	
  decision-­‐making	
  powers;	
  Songdo	
  corporations	
  are	
  fully	
  
exercising	
  their	
  free	
  economic	
  zone	
  rights	
  and	
  emerging	
  as	
  the	
  city’s	
  primary	
  
decision	
  makers.	
  	
  With	
  a	
  completion	
  date	
  slated	
  for	
  2020	
  (Incheon	
  FEZ	
  Overview),	
  
the	
  IFEZ	
  is	
  still	
  developing,	
  but	
  Songdo’s	
  access	
  to	
  a	
  diverse	
  offering	
  of	
  foreign	
  
investors	
  and	
  companies	
  has	
  already	
  fashioned	
  a	
  noticeable	
  separation	
  from	
  all	
  
other	
  cities.	
  
	
  
Free	
  economic	
  zones	
  are	
  a	
  product	
  of	
  neoliberal	
  globalization	
  that	
  has	
  sought	
  to	
  
privatize	
  and	
  liberalize	
  public	
  sector	
  monopolies	
  and	
  inject	
  economic	
  prosperity	
  
into	
  the	
  global	
  economy	
  by	
  moving	
  industry	
  to	
  developing	
  countries	
  and	
  benefitting	
  
from	
  the	
  cheap	
  labor	
  and	
  new	
  markets.	
  This	
  “commodification”	
  of	
  urban	
  services	
  
(McDonald	
  and	
  Ruiters	
  2005)	
  explains	
  the	
  emergence	
  of	
  not	
  only	
  IFEZ	
  but	
  Songdo,	
  
as	
  well.	
  Gale	
  and	
  POSCO	
  took	
  advantage	
  of	
  the	
  open	
  global	
  market	
  that	
  catered	
  
towards	
  private	
  sector	
  investments.	
  Songdo	
  demonstrates	
  why	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  the	
  
latest	
  development	
  spawning	
  from	
  the	
  neoliberal	
  configuration	
  of	
  globally	
  
networked	
  cities,	
  described	
  by	
  Mark	
  Swilling’s	
  “Conceptualizing	
  Urbanism,	
  Ecology,	
  
and	
  Networked	
  Infrastructure.”	
  The	
  privatization	
  and	
  exploitation	
  of	
  urban	
  areas	
  
have	
  resulted	
  in	
  what	
  Swilling	
  calls	
  “splintered	
  urbanism.”	
  The	
  term	
  indicates	
  the	
  
fading	
  vision	
  of	
  an	
  inclusive	
  society	
  and	
  any	
  hope	
  for	
  global	
  minorities	
  benefitting	
  
from	
  globalization.	
  Smart	
  city	
  designers	
  are	
  the	
  modern-­‐day	
  equivalent	
  to	
  Robert	
  
Moses	
  and	
  Le	
  Corbusier,	
  both	
  of	
  which	
  favored	
  progress,	
  efficiency,	
  and	
  control	
  over	
  
civic	
  well	
  being	
  (Swilling	
  2011,	
  84).	
  By	
  appealing	
  to	
  the	
  wealthy,	
  smart	
  cities	
  like	
  
Songdo	
  perpetuate	
  the	
  divide	
  between	
  the	
  rich	
  and	
  the	
  poor.	
  
	
  
Essentially	
  one	
  large	
  computer,	
  smart	
  cities	
  are	
  gated	
  communities	
  separated	
  
technologically	
  rather	
  than	
  by	
  physical	
  structures	
  (Hodson	
  and	
  Marvin	
  2009).	
  Such	
  
a	
  separation	
  between	
  smart	
  cities	
  and	
  surrounding	
  communities	
  could	
  pose	
  future	
  
problems	
  by	
  perpetuating	
  further	
  class	
  stratification	
  and	
  marginalization.	
  	
  In	
  the	
  
essay	
  “The	
  Right	
  to	
  the	
  City,”	
  author	
  David	
  Harvey	
  argues,	
  “Quality	
  of	
  urban	
  life	
  has	
  
become	
  a	
  commodity,	
  as	
  has	
  the	
  city	
  itself,	
  in	
  a	
  world	
  where	
  consumerism,	
  tourism,	
  
cultural	
  and	
  knowledge-­‐based	
  industries	
  have	
  become	
  major	
  aspects	
  of	
  the	
  urban	
  
political	
  economy”	
  (Harvey	
  31).	
  	
  The	
  result	
  has	
  been	
  a	
  configuration	
  of	
  market	
  
niches	
  within	
  the	
  modern	
  urban	
  space.	
  	
  The	
  proliferation	
  of	
  urban	
  sprawl,	
  such	
  as	
  
shopping	
  malls,	
  fast	
  food	
  restaurants,	
  and	
  supercenters,	
  is	
  treating	
  privileged	
  
wealth	
  holders	
  to	
  a	
  delusional	
  urban	
  experience,	
  which	
  Sharon	
  Zukin	
  cleverly	
  calls	
  
‘pacification	
  by	
  cappuccino’	
  (Harvey	
  31).	
  	
  Free	
  market	
  capitalism	
  and	
  the	
  notion	
  of	
  
possessive	
  individualism	
  have	
  made	
  the	
  rich	
  richer	
  and	
  the	
  poor	
  poorer,	
  thus	
  
leading	
  to	
  cities,	
  especially	
  in	
  the	
  developing	
  world,	
  that	
  are:	
  	
  
  14	
  
	
  
	
   “Splitting	
  into	
  different	
  separated	
  parts,	
  with	
  the	
  apparent	
  formation	
  
of	
  many	
  ‘microstates’.	
  Wealthy	
  neighbourhoods	
  provided	
  with	
  all	
  
kinds	
  of	
  services,	
  such	
  as	
  exclusive	
  schools,	
  golf	
  courses,	
  tennis	
  courts	
  
and	
  private	
  police	
  patrolling	
  the	
  area	
  around	
  the	
  clock	
  intertwine	
  
with	
  illegal	
  settlements	
  where	
  water	
  is	
  available	
  only	
  at	
  public	
  
fountains,	
  no	
  sanitation	
  system	
  exists,	
  electricity	
  is	
  pirated	
  by	
  a	
  
privileged	
  few,	
  the	
  roads	
  become	
  mud	
  streams	
  whenever	
  it	
  rains,	
  and	
  
where	
  house-­‐sharing	
  is	
  the	
  norm.	
  Each	
  fragment	
  appears	
  to	
  live	
  and	
  
function	
  autonomously,	
  sticking	
  firmly	
  to	
  what	
  it	
  has	
  been	
  able	
  to	
  
grab	
  in	
  the	
  daily	
  fight	
  for	
  survival”	
  (Harvey	
  32).	
  
	
  
Smart	
  cities	
  are	
  ostracizing	
  the	
  poor	
  and	
  creating	
  a	
  closed	
  loop	
  system	
  that	
  will	
  
continue	
  decreasing	
  resilience.	
  Neoliberal	
  globalization	
  is	
  adding	
  greater	
  structure	
  
to	
  a	
  rule-­‐set	
  already	
  dangerously	
  close	
  to	
  overshoot	
  and	
  collapse.	
  The	
  ever-­‐
increasing	
  levels	
  of	
  hierarchical	
  order	
  require	
  a	
  pacemaker	
  to	
  function	
  as	
  they	
  
continue	
  on	
  a	
  Cartesian	
  path	
  seeking	
  total	
  and	
  efficient	
  control.	
  As	
  the	
  progress	
  
continues	
  and	
  the	
  rule-­‐set	
  becomes	
  more	
  defined,	
  resilience	
  is	
  declining	
  and	
  
collapse	
  is	
  nearing.	
  Meanwhile,	
  the	
  global	
  south	
  maintain	
  a	
  standard	
  of	
  living	
  that	
  is	
  
relatively	
  more	
  sustainable	
  and	
  resilient.	
  
	
  
	
  
Conclusion	
  
	
  
There	
  is	
  incredible	
  irony	
  in	
  the	
  smart	
  city	
  boom.	
  First	
  world	
  countries	
  are	
  wealthier	
  
because	
  they	
  have	
  emerged	
  successful	
  in	
  a	
  capitalistic	
  world.	
  Their	
  prosperity	
  has	
  
led	
  to	
  greater	
  consumption	
  and	
  environmental	
  harm.	
  To	
  combat	
  the	
  eco	
  issues	
  that	
  
they	
  primarily	
  created	
  through	
  previous	
  progressive	
  actions,	
  first	
  world	
  countries	
  
are	
  creating	
  a	
  new	
  capitalistic	
  product	
  (smart	
  cities)	
  that	
  will	
  continue	
  the	
  trend	
  of	
  
innovating	
  to	
  generate	
  temporary	
  solutions.	
  All	
  the	
  while,	
  the	
  poor	
  remain	
  excluded	
  
and	
  marginalized.	
  Yet,	
  the	
  progress	
  of	
  the	
  globalized	
  minority	
  and	
  developing	
  
nations	
  will	
  be	
  the	
  defining	
  factor	
  in	
  determining	
  the	
  world’s	
  future.	
  
	
  
The	
  many	
  issues	
  surrounding	
  capitalism	
  raises	
  the	
  question:	
  is	
  resilience	
  possible	
  in	
  
a	
  capitalistic	
  system?	
  The	
  answer	
  is	
  that	
  it	
  is	
  possible,	
  but	
  the	
  best	
  form	
  of	
  resiliency	
  
is	
  not	
  possible.	
  If	
  complexity	
  thinking	
  and	
  building	
  for	
  resiliency	
  (instead	
  of	
  
sustainability)	
  become	
  more	
  common,	
  resilient	
  cities	
  can	
  be	
  developed.	
  Still,	
  the	
  
solitary,	
  competitive	
  attitude	
  of	
  capitalism	
  is	
  a	
  contrast	
  to	
  resiliency	
  thinking,	
  which	
  
has	
  little	
  to	
  do	
  with	
  the	
  “individual”	
  and	
  identifies	
  community	
  building	
  as	
  a	
  
necessary	
  component.	
  As	
  long	
  as	
  corporations	
  are	
  the	
  main	
  pacemakers	
  in	
  
designing	
  and	
  controlling	
  a	
  smart	
  city,	
  Cartesian	
  thought	
  will	
  be	
  at	
  the	
  forefront	
  of	
  
smart	
  city	
  development.	
  Transitioning	
  away	
  from	
  this	
  thought	
  process	
  and	
  towards	
  
a	
  postmodern	
  mindset	
  means	
  narrowing	
  the	
  gap	
  between	
  corporations,	
  
governments,	
  and	
  grassroots	
  communities.	
  In	
  order	
  to	
  build	
  resiliency,	
  competition	
  
between	
  groups	
  needs	
  to	
  become	
  cooperation,	
  meaning	
  top-­‐down	
  pacemakers	
  must	
  
work	
  with	
  bottom-­‐up	
  proponents.	
  	
  
  15	
  
	
  
If	
  Johnson’s	
  description	
  of	
  emergent	
  properties	
  and	
  Jane	
  Jacobs’	
  theory	
  on	
  cities	
  as	
  
being	
  a	
  bottom-­‐up	
  phenomenon	
  is	
  any	
  indication	
  of	
  how	
  to	
  approach	
  resiliency,	
  
then	
  the	
  solution	
  lies	
  in	
  the	
  grassroots,	
  community	
  projects.	
  The	
  grassroots	
  may	
  be	
  
where	
  solutions	
  lie,	
  however,	
  their	
  influences	
  will	
  not	
  happen	
  quickly	
  enough	
  
because	
  of	
  the	
  “perfect	
  storm.	
  Songdo	
  demonstrates	
  companies	
  are	
  concerned	
  with	
  
profits,	
  while	
  local	
  communities	
  don’t	
  have	
  the	
  necessary	
  resources	
  or	
  power	
  to	
  
implement	
  strategies	
  fast	
  enough;	
  thus,	
  the	
  solution	
  appears	
  to	
  be	
  with	
  policy	
  
makers	
  to	
  unify	
  the	
  two	
  contrasting	
  groups.	
  They	
  will	
  need	
  to	
  employ	
  companies	
  to	
  
build	
  and	
  design	
  solutions	
  that	
  benefit	
  entire	
  communities,	
  not	
  just	
  the	
  rich.	
  If	
  the	
  
smart	
  city	
  is	
  successful,	
  it	
  will	
  likely	
  be	
  due	
  to	
  bottom-­‐up	
  initiatives	
  that	
  slowly	
  
make	
  new	
  contributions	
  to	
  the	
  city	
  over	
  time,	
  not	
  unlike	
  the	
  Internet’s	
  progress.	
  The	
  
Internet	
  is	
  a	
  result	
  of	
  communal	
  citizen	
  participation,	
  which	
  is	
  essential	
  for	
  
implementing	
  an	
  effective,	
  lasting	
  smart	
  city	
  model.	
  Promoting	
  a	
  trans-­‐disciplinary	
  
culture	
  is	
  important	
  because	
  it	
  promotes	
  community	
  building	
  by	
  uniting	
  different	
  
groups	
  of	
  people	
  through	
  shared	
  commonalities.	
  Walled-­‐off	
  smart	
  cites	
  that	
  are	
  
crafted	
  from	
  input	
  primarily	
  from	
  corporations	
  negatively	
  affects	
  trans-­‐disciplinary	
  
culture.	
  
	
  
Just	
  as	
  Cartesian	
  thought	
  is	
  a	
  product	
  of	
  Western	
  philosophy	
  and	
  civilization	
  so,	
  too,	
  
is	
  individualism.	
  Rene	
  Descartes	
  is	
  often	
  deemed	
  the	
  “father	
  of	
  modern	
  philosophy”	
  
because	
  of	
  his	
  groundbreaking	
  work	
  theorizing	
  the	
  “solitary	
  self.”	
  Descartes	
  
emphasis	
  on	
  individualism	
  “is	
  as	
  defining	
  a	
  characteristic	
  of	
  our	
  present	
  civilization	
  
as	
  capitalism,	
  materialism,	
  technology,	
  and	
  global	
  expansion”	
  (Brammann).	
  Smart	
  
cities	
  are	
  a	
  product	
  of	
  these	
  reductionist	
  characteristics;	
  therefore,	
  complexity	
  
thinking	
  and	
  postmodernism	
  are	
  largely	
  absent	
  in	
  smart	
  city	
  design.	
  
	
  
Jane	
  Jacobs	
  successfully	
  preserved	
  poor	
  neighborhoods	
  by	
  opposing	
  a	
  highway	
  
expansion,	
  however	
  her	
  victory	
  over	
  capitalism	
  is	
  rare.	
  Smart	
  cities	
  mark	
  the	
  latest	
  
capitalistic	
  step	
  in	
  city	
  development	
  because	
  “as	
  people	
  become	
  richer,	
  they	
  have	
  
increasingly	
  chosen	
  cities	
  based	
  on	
  lifestyle,”	
  which	
  has	
  birthed	
  the	
  consumer	
  city	
  
(Glaeser	
  10).	
  As	
  long	
  as	
  capitalism	
  continues	
  fueling	
  cities,	
  the	
  “wall”	
  surrounding	
  
cities	
  will	
  climb	
  to	
  greater	
  heights.	
  
	
  
Bibliography	
  
	
  
Alexander,	
  Christopher.	
  "A	
  City	
  Is	
  Not	
  a	
  Tree."	
  Architectural	
  Forum	
  (1965).	
  Rudi.net.	
  
Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  
	
  
Brammann,	
  Jorn	
  K.	
  "Descartes:	
  The	
  Solitary	
  Self."	
  Frostburg	
  State	
  University.	
  2004.	
  
Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  
<http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/Descartes.htm>.	
  
	
  
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  the	
  Earth:	
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  for	
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<https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/CFE-­‐003.pdf>.	
  
  16	
  
	
  
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<http://www.channelingreality.com/Documents/Brundtland_Searchable.pdf
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  Emily.	
  "Daily	
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  If	
  Everyone	
  Lived	
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  An	
  American,	
  How	
  Many	
  
Earths	
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<http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2012-­‐10/daily-­‐infographic-­‐
if-­‐everyone-­‐lived-­‐american-­‐how-­‐many-­‐earths-­‐would-­‐we-­‐need>.	
  
	
  
Glaeser,	
  Edward	
  L.	
  Triumph	
  of	
  the	
  City:	
  How	
  Our	
  Greatest	
  Invention	
  Makes	
  Us	
  Richer,	
  
Smarter,	
  Greener,	
  Healthier,	
  and	
  Happier.	
  New	
  York:	
  Penguin,	
  2011.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Greenfield,	
  Adam.	
  Against	
  the	
  Smart	
  City.	
  1.3	
  ed.	
  Do	
  Projects,	
  2013.	
  Kindle.	
  
	
  
Gunderson,	
  Lance	
  H.,	
  and	
  C.	
  S.	
  Holling.	
  Panarchy:	
  Understanding	
  Transformations	
  in	
  
Human	
  and	
  Natural	
  Systems.	
  Washington,	
  DC:	
  Island,	
  2002.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Harvey,	
  David.	
  "The	
  Right	
  to	
  the	
  City."	
  New	
  Left	
  Review	
  53	
  (2008).	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  
2015.	
  
	
  
Hodson,	
  Mike	
  and	
  Simon	
  Marvin.	
  "The	
  Right	
  to	
  the	
  City	
  -­‐	
  Energy	
  and	
  Climate	
  
Change."	
  Critical	
  Currents	
  6	
  (2009).	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Homer-­‐Dixon,	
  Thomas	
  F.	
  The	
  Upside	
  of	
  Down:	
  Catastrophe,	
  Creativity,	
  and	
  the	
  
Renewal	
  of	
  Civilization.	
  Washington:	
  Island,	
  2006.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
"Incheon	
  FEZ	
  Overview."	
  Korean	
  Free	
  Economic	
  Zones.	
  Web.	
  14	
  May	
  2015.	
  
<http://www.fez.go.kr/en/incheon-­‐fez-­‐overview.jsp>.	
  
	
  
Johnson,	
  Steven.	
  Emergence:	
  The	
  Connected	
  Lives	
  of	
  Ants,	
  Brains,	
  Cities,	
  and	
  Software.	
  
New	
  York:	
  Scribner,	
  2001.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Kellner,	
  Douglas,	
  and	
  Steven	
  Best.	
  The	
  Post	
  Modern	
  Turn.	
  New	
  York:	
  Guilford,	
  1997.	
  
Print.	
  
	
  
Kuecker,	
  Glen.	
  "The	
  Perfect	
  Storm:	
  Catastrophic	
  Collapse	
  in	
  the	
  21st	
  Century."	
  The	
  
International	
  Journal	
  of	
  Environmental,	
  Cultural,	
  Economic,	
  and	
  Social	
  
Sustainability	
  3	
  (2007).	
  Print.	
  
	
  
McDonald,	
  David	
  Alexander,	
  and	
  Greg	
  Ruiters.	
  The	
  Age	
  of	
  Commodity.	
  London:	
  
Earthscan,	
  2005.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
The	
  Natural	
  Edge	
  Project.	
  2013.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  
<http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/>.	
  
  17	
  
	
  
Scott,	
  James	
  C.	
  Seeing	
  like	
  a	
  State:	
  How	
  Certain	
  Schemes	
  to	
  Improve	
  the	
  Human	
  
Condition	
  Have	
  Failed.	
  New	
  Haven:	
  Yale	
  UP,	
  1998.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Newman,	
  Peter,	
  Timothy	
  Beatley,	
  and	
  Heather	
  Boyer.	
  Resilient	
  Cities:	
  Responding	
  to	
  
Peak	
  Oil	
  and	
  Climate	
  Change.	
  Washington,	
  DC:	
  Island,	
  2009.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
Songdo	
  IBD.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  <http://www.songdo.com/>.	
  
	
  
"Songdo	
  International	
  Business	
  District."	
  Gale	
  International.	
  Web.	
  14	
  May	
  2015.	
  
<http://www.galeintl.com/projects/songdo-­‐ib/>.	
  
	
  
"The	
  Surprising	
  Math	
  of	
  Cities	
  and	
  Corporations."	
  TED.	
  N.p.,	
  July	
  2011.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  
2015.	
  
<http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_west_the_surprising_math_of_cities_an
d_corporations?language=en>.	
  
	
  
Swilling,	
  Mark.	
  "Reconceptualizing	
  Urbanism,	
  Ecology,	
  and	
  Networked	
  
Infrastructures."	
  Social	
  Dynamics	
  37.1	
  (2011):	
  78-­‐95.	
  Web.	
  
	
  
Thomas	
  Homer-­‐Dixon.	
  2011.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2013.	
  <http://www.homerdixon.com>.	
  
	
  
Townsend,	
  Anthony	
  M.	
  Smart	
  Cities:	
  Big	
  Data,	
  Civic	
  Hackers,	
  and	
  the	
  Quest	
  for	
  a	
  New	
  
Utopia.	
  New	
  York:	
  W.	
  W.	
  Norton,	
  2014.	
  Print.	
  
	
  
"What	
  Is	
  Disaster	
  Risk	
  Reduction?"	
  UNISDR	
  News.	
  The	
  United	
  Nations	
  Office	
  for	
  
Disaster	
  Risk	
  Reduction.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  <http://www.unisdr.org/who-­‐
we-­‐are/what-­‐is-­‐drr>.	
  
	
  
"World’s	
  Population	
  Increasingly	
  Urban	
  with	
  More	
  than	
  Half	
  Living	
  in	
  Urban	
  Areas	
  |	
  
UN	
  DESA	
  |	
  United	
  Nations	
  Department	
  of	
  Economic	
  and	
  Social	
  Affairs."	
  
United	
  Nations	
  News	
  Center.	
  United	
  Natios,	
  10	
  July	
  2014.	
  Web.	
  11	
  May	
  2015.	
  
<http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-­‐
urbanization-­‐prospects-­‐2014.html>.	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  

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Smart Cities

  • 1.   1   Smart  is  a  Relative  Term:   Evaluating  the  Flawed  Thinking  Behind  Smart  Cities   By  Douglas  Hinkel     Progress  is  forward  movement  that  often  subjectively  implies  improvement.  It  can   only  be  relatively  measured  through  the  comparison  of  a  past  and  present  state.   Thus,  progress  is  a  relative  term  that  is  dependent  not  only  on  time,  but  also  on   space  and  place.  Progress  and  the  elements  that  it  consists  of—time,  space,  place,   and  subjectivity—are  important  factors  for  analyzing  the  topics  and  themes  of  this   essay,  which  explores  the  naturally  progressive  attitude  of  human  beings  and  how  it   results  in  a  constantly  changing  society.  These  changes  can  be  largely  attributed  to  a   relentless  pursuit  of  efficiency  that  is  accomplished  through  innovation,   implementation,  and  building.  While  beneficial  in  the  short  term,  progress  and   increased  efficiency  add  new  layers  of  complexity  to  the  global  system,  which  can   exacerbate  undetected  issues  or  give  rise  to  new  problems.       The  full  extent  of  progressive  human  ambition  was  demonstrated  during  the   Industrial  Revolution.  With  building  and  consumerism  rising  to  the  forefront  of   Western  civilization,  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  time  of  great  economic   prosperity.  However,  the  wealth  did  not  come  without  a  cost—the  revolution’s  long-­‐ term,  adverse  effects  are  now  being  realized  with  a  growing  number  of  global   problems.  This  variety  of  problems—climate  change,  the  energy  crisis,  population   overload,  and  food  and  fresh  water  shortage  —are  what  Glen  Kuecker  refers  to  as   the  “perfect  storm”  because  they  are  all  threatening  to  simultaneously  culminate   and  feed  off  each  other.  For  example,  Earth’s  rising  population  means  more  food  and   fresh  water  will  be  needed  and  consumed,  but  climate  change  and  pollution  will   decrease  the  amount  of  available  farmland  and  drinkable  water  (Kuecker  2007).   With  developing  countries  like  China  and  India  growing  rapidly,  these  conditions   will  only  worsen.  The  United  States  is  the  second  most  environmentally  harmful   country  in  the  world,  second  only  to  the  United  Arab  Emirates.  If  every  nation  were   to  live  like  the  United  States,  more  than  four  Earths  would  be  needed  to  sustain   conditions;  thus,  allowing  developing  nations  to  follow  similar  paths  will  be   disastrous  (Elert  2012).  But,  there  are  ethical  issues  in  preventing  nations  from   growing  through  building  and  innovation:  the  United  States  did  it  so  why  shouldn’t   other  countries  be  allowed  to  experience  the  same  financial  benefits?  Consequently,   it’s  essential  for  devising  a  solution  that  allows  developing  nations  to  grow   economically  without  inflicting  the  same  environmental  harm.       Focusing  on  cities  is  key  for  mitigating  the  “perfect  storm”  while  not  harming   economic  prosperity.  For  the  first  time  in  history,  more  than  fifty  percent  of  the   global  population  now  lives  in  urban  areas.  By  2050,  the  world’s  population  is   projected  to  surpass  ten  billion  people  with  approximately  two  thirds  of  them   calling  a  city  their  home  (World’s  Population  Increasingly  Urban  2014).  Cities  are   commonly  thought  of  as  concrete  havens  swarming  with  cars  and  filled  with  air  and   noise  pollution,  but  if  designed  correctly,  they  are  the  most  ecologically  mindful   option.  The  density  of  a  city  reduces  motorized  vehicle  usage  and  makes  it  easier  to  
  • 2.   2   travel  by  walking,  cycling,  and  using  public  transit.  The  individuals  behind  a  new   trend  of  smart  cities  are  hoping  to  capitalize  on  the  city’s  untapped  potential  and   offer  a  solution  to  the  globe’s  worsening  conditions.     Smart  cities—a  recent  creation  of  progressive  human  thought—aim  to  use   technology  to  make  cities  more  connected,  efficient,  and  ultimately,  more  enjoyable   living  environments.  They  present  themselves  as  cities  of  the  future  that  will   improve  upon  the  poor,  inefficient  designs  of  past  cities  by  offering  new  ways  of   thinking  and  living  that  are  more  environmentally  friendly.  There  is  no  clear   definition  for  what  a  smart  city  is,  but  technology  will  certainly  play  a  large  part.   Sensors  will  be  placed  throughout  the  city  to  monitor  things  like  traffic  patterns,   pollution  levels,  and  energy  consumption.  Data  will  arguably  be  the  smart  city’s   most  valuable  asset,  as  it  will  be  used  to  predict  patterns  and  make  the  city  more   efficient.  Anthony  Townsend,  author  of  Smart  Cities,  defines  them  as  “places  where   information  technology  is  combined  with  infrastructure,  architecture,  everyday   objects,  and  even  our  bodies  to  address  social,  economic,  and  environmental   problems”  (Townsend  2014,  15).  Unfortunately,  while  they  appear  sleek,  innovative,   and  new,  smart  cities  fall  into  the  same  Cartesian,  mechanistic  thinking  trap   (discussed  in  Theme  3)  that  causes  more  problems  than  it  solves.     This  essay  will  use  smart  cities  to  illustrate  the  conceptual  problems  with  the  way   we  are  thinking  about  progress,  problem  solving,  and  the  future  condition  of  our   planet  (sustainability  versus  resilience).  Smart  cities  will  be  analyzed  through   multiple  lenses  that  implore  examples  and  arguments  crafted  by  key  individuals   behind  urban  design.  The  recently  built  South  Korean  smart  city,  New  Songdo  City,   is  analyzed  using  key  concepts  such  as,  Christopher  Alexander’s  “A  City  is  Not  a   Tree”  and  Steven  Johnson’s  exploration  of  emergence.  Alexander’s  claim  that   designers  are  thinking  about  cities  in  the  wrong  way  (i.e.  as  a  tree  structure  instead   of  a  much  more  complex  structure)  will  support  postmodern  scientific  thought  and   complexity  thinking.  Johnson’s  concept  of  complex  adaptive  systems  and  emergent   properties  explains  the  organic,  bottom-­‐up  structure  from  which  cities  naturally   develop  and  the  extreme  complexity  and  interconnectedness  at  which  our  society  is   currently  operating.  The  street-­‐level  actions  and  beliefs  of  Jane  Jacobs,  author  of  The   Life  and  Death  of  the  American  City,  will  support  Johnson’s  claims.  These  ideas  will   be  contrasted  with  the  top-­‐down  organizational  approach  in  which  smart  city   designers  are  undertaking.       Theme  1:  Sustainability  vs.  Resiliency     When  evaluating  the  effectiveness  of  smart  cities,  distinctions  must  be  made   between  the  term  sustainability,  specifically  sustainable  development,  and  resiliency.   Defining  either  term  is  difficult  since  they  both  encompass  a  broad  variety  of   concepts  and  practices.  One  of  the  most  widely  accepted  descriptions  of  sustainable   development  is  found  in  the  United  Nations’  1987  Brundtland  Report,  which  says,   “Sustainable  development  is  development  that  meets  the  needs  of  the  present   without  compromising  the  ability  of  future  generations  to  meet  their  own  needs”  
  • 3.   3   (Development  and  Economic  Co-­‐operation).  The  importance  of  resilience  becomes   evident  upon  the  realization  that  sustainable  development  is  a  contradictory  term   since  it  is  impossible  for  anything  physical  to  grow  indefinitely  (Caring  for  the   Earth).  At  some  point  every  system  reaches  a  point  when  growth  is  no  longer   possible  and  collapse  happens.  Theme  2  will  demonstrate  why  society  is  nearing   peak  growth  and  the  reason  we  should  be  focusing  on  resilience  building  instead  of   sustainable  development.  Sustainability  and  resilience  differ  in  the  following  ways:       • Sustainability  operates  under  the  assumption  that  there  is  still  time  to   change  society’s  destructive  habits  and  prevent  collapse.  Resilience  operates   under  the  assumption  that  it  is  too  late  to  correct  certain  issues  and  prepares   for  unavoidable  problems.     • Resilience  refers  to  the  ability  of  a  system  to  withstand  a  shock  by  adapting   and  changing  without  sacrificing  its  fundamental  structure  and  organization.   Sustainability  does  not  even  anticipate  a  shock.   •  Sustainability  views  the  “perfect  storm”  as  solvable  and  curable.  Resiliency   plans  for  the  “perfect  storm’s”  worst  case  scenario  (Newman,  Beatley,  Boyer   2009,  6).     Smart  cities  are  focusing  predominantly  on  sustainability.  Constructed  around  the   turn  of  the  new  millennium,  South  Korea’s  smart  city,  New  Songdo  City,   demonstrates  how  most  smart  cities  are  approaching  eco-­‐design.  The  city  boasts   features  such  as  an  electric  public  transit  system  and  a  ubiquitous  communication   system,  which  aims  to  digitally  connect  everyone  and  everything.  The  city  is   designed  to  encourage  walking  and  cycling  with  open  space  and  public  parks   accounting  for  about  forty  percent  of  the  city’s  total  area.  For  longer  distances,  the   electric  rail  system  will  ideally  reduce  motorized  vehicle  usage.  The  ubiquitous   approach  reduces  energy  consumption  and  the  use  of  environmentally  harmful   vehicles  by  encouraging  citizens  to  converse  screen-­‐to-­‐screen  in  lieu  of  face-­‐to-­‐face   interaction.  In  Songdo,  for  example,  visiting,  business  meetings,  and  even  some   schooling  are  conducted  virtually  (Songdo  IBD).  Sustainability  and  a  ubiquitous   approach  are  part  of  most  smart  city  aspirations;  though  the  intentions  are  good,  the   thinking  and  designs  are  drastically  decreasing  resilience.     Resilience  means  preparing  for  the  worst,  or  performing  disaster  risk  reduction   (DRR).  There  is  no  exact  formula  for  building  resilience  because,  like  progress,  it  is   subjectively  dependent  on  place  and  time.  Coastal  cities  will  need  to  consider  rising   sea  levels  and  hurricane  threats.  New  Orleans  is  an  example  of  a  city  that  could  have   saved  lives  and  lessened  damage  costs  by  anticipating  the  worst-­‐case  scenario  in  the   event  of  a  hurricane  strike.  When  Hurricane  Katrina  hit  New  Orleans  in  2005,  little   DRR  had  been  done.  Properly  performed  DRR  would  have  identified  high-­‐risk   factors  such  as  the  city’s  weak  levee  and  poor  highway  system  that  provided  citizens   with  only  one  way  out  of  the  city.  The  catastrophic  2011  earthquake  in  Christchurch   offers  another  example  of  how  better  DRR  could  have  been  performed  to  prevent   unnecessary  casualties  and  city  destruction.  Both  cities  are  now  rebuilding  with  
  • 4.   4   better  preventative  measures,  but  unfortunately,  it  took  a  large-­‐scale  disaster  to   convince  city  officials  of  the  importance  of  DRR  (UNISDR).  One  has  to  wonder  if  it   will  take  a  similar  global  disaster  before  most  cities  start  taking  resiliency  building,   such  as  DRR,  more  seriously.     If  a  city  is  not  walkable,  then  it  is  not  resilient.  Walking  and  cycling  decrease  carbon   dioxide  emissions,  alleviate  reliance  on  a  motorized-­‐transport  system,  and  frees   society  from  its  dependence  on  energy.  But  even  more  significantly,  a  walking-­‐based   city  builds  community—the  core  of  resilience.  It  is  important  to  ask  questions  such   as:  what  are  the  processes  by  which  we  can  get  groups  of  people  to  collaborate  and   work  together?  Facilitating  “localism”  will  make  citizens  more  aware  of  the   problems  facing  their  community  and  generate  a  better  sense  of  “we’re  all  in  this   together”  (Newman  136).  Community  building  will  also  give  citizens  a  greater  voice   and  help  return  city  design  to  a  bottom-­‐up  structure.  No  one  understood  the   importance  of  civic  participation  and  communication  better  than  urban-­‐activist,   Jane  Jacobs  (discussed  in  greater  detail  later),  who  recognized  a  city  based  around   the  sidewalk,  and  not  the  street,  was  important  for  generating  a  flow  of  information   between  city  residents.  Sidewalks  are  a  catalyst  for  “relatively  high-­‐bandwidth   communication  between  total  strangers,  and  they  mix  large  numbers  of  individuals   in  random  configurations…  Sidewalks  provide  both  the  right  kind  and  the  right   number  of  local  interactions.  They  are  the  gap  junctions  of  city  life”  (Johnson  2001,   94).       Songdo’s  ubiquitous  technology  approach  discourages  the  random  sidewalk   encounters  Jacobs  identified  as  essential  for  the  city’s  community  building.  By   encouraging  walking  while  also  promoting  teleconferencing  instead  of  traveling,   Songdo  is  contradicting  itself.  If  the  chance  meetings  of  strangers  are  lost,  then  the   sense  of  “localism”  will  also  vanish.  By  increasing  sustainable  practices  with   ubiquitous  connectivity,  smart  cities  forego  a  primary  benefit  of  sidewalks.  A   walkable,  localized  city  is  resilient,  but  a  city  where  people  leave  their  homes  less   often  is  not;  it  is  only  sustainable.     Theme  2:  Panarchy  and  Exponential  Growth     Smart  cities  propose  a  technological  interconnectedness  design,  and  while  this   concept  could  result  in  more  sustainable  living  (by  reducing  travel  time  and   increasing  efficiency  in  the  case  of  Songdo),  it  will  ultimately  cause  more  harm  than   good,  largely  by  decreasing  resilience.  As  a  city  becomes  more  connected,  it  loses  its   ability  to  adapt  since  a  shock  to  one  part  of  the  system  will  affect  all  other  connected   parts.  Smart  cities  are  “places  whose  possibilities  are  activated  by  the  arcane   workings  of  computational  systems,  to  the  degree  that  they  are  incapable  of   functioning  as  intended,  should  those  systems  default”  (Greenfield  2013).   Adaptability  is  another  necessary  element  of  resilience.     Evaluating  the  progress  (or  lack  thereof)  of  American  industrial  cities  demonstrates   the  importance  of  maintaining  an  adaptable,  and  thus  resilient,  city  model.  In  the  
  • 5.   5   1950s,  six  cities—Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Detroit,  New  Orleans,  Pittsburg,  and  St.  Louis— were  prospering  urban  areas.  Raw  and  industrial,  they  were  places  where  the   average  high  school  graduate  could  make  a  comfortable  living  working  a  plant's   assembly  line.  Sixty  years  later,  in  an  age  where  education  is  increasingly  important   and  robots  and  computers  have  assumed  much  of  the  industrial  grunt  work,  these   six  cities  have  lost  more  than  half  of  their  population.  But  why  is  it  places  such  as   Detroit  and  Pittsburg  have  declined,  while  other  previous  industrial  cities  have   flourished?  Why,  for  example,  is  Boston  no  longer  associated  with  smokestacks   despite  practically  being  the  capital  of  the  American  Industrial  Revolution?  The   answer  can  be  explained  by  adaptation  and  a  return  to  fundamental  practices  that   initially  made  cities  successful—“specialized  skills,  small  enterprises,  and  strong   connections  with  the  outside  world”  (Glaeser  2011,  42).  Many  industrial  cities  fell   because  they  mistakenly  abandoned  vital  aspects  of  city  life,  and  instead,  tried  to   breed  prosperity  through  building  housing  projects,  high-­‐rise  offices,  and  high-­‐tech   transit  systems.  These  mistakes  were  a  result  of  “the  all-­‐too-­‐common  error  of   confusing  a  city,  which  is  really  a  mass  of  connected  humanity,  with  its  structures”   (Glaeser  43).     Alexander  says  the  mind  cannot  fully  comprehend  the  extreme  overlap  between   forces,  however,  smart  cities  believe  computers  might  be  the  answer  to  human’s   limitations  (i.e.  with  the  correct  programming  and  mathematics,  a  computer  could   potentially  predict  future  outcomes  by  evaluating  the  entirety  of  a  city’s  interactive   elements).  Smart  city  designers  have  identified  computers  as  being  more  equipped   to  interpret  complex  adaptive  systems,  but  they  are  still  falling  into  the  Cartesian   trap.  Technology  such  as  computer  analytics  and  communication  could  play  a   beneficial  role  in  solving  problems,  but  it  should  not  be  seen  as  the  solution.  Smart   cities  are  placing  too  much  faith  in  the  power  of  predictive  and  communicative   digital  systems  to  solve  problems.  Supporting  Jacobs’  love  for  the  simplistic  power   of  the  sidewalk  and  the  empowerment  of  civil  society,  Peter  Newman,  Timothy   Beatley,  and  Heather  Boyer,  authors  of  Resilient  Cities,  say,  “change  is  not  primarily   about  technology,  but  about  how  cities  function  at  a  basic  cultural  level”  (Newman   85).  Smart  cities  want  to  solve  problems,  as  well  as  prevent  them  from  ever   occurring,  by  utilizing  programmed  technology  to  turn  the  city  into  a  computerized   machine—something  that  is  proving  much  more  difficult  than  reductionist  thinkers   anticipated.     Designers  are  leveraging  flawed  mechanistic  thought  to  quite  literally  transform  a   city  into  a  machine.  Evidence  of  a  failed  effort  can  be  found  in  IBM’s  recent  attempt   to  develop  a  computer  capable  of  predicting  a  city’s  future  happenings.  IBM   described  their  creation  as  a  “decision  support  system”  that  intended  to  help  policy   makers  by  informing  them  of  the  ripple  effects  that  would  occur  due  to  the  city’s   interdependencies.  Using  a  system  of  algorithms,  IBM  quickly  realized  their   overzealous  ambitions.  Quickly  accumulating  more  than  seven  thousand  equations,   the  program  spiraled  out  of  control  and  crashed  (Townsend  83).  IBM’s  fiasco  is  a   reminder  of  the  city’s  immense  complexity  and  difficulty  humans  face  in  trying  to   develop  solutions  for  significant  problems.    
  • 6.   6     A  digitally  controlled  city  is  not  the  answer  to  the  “perfect  storm,”  but  instead,  the   latest  entry  in  a  long  line  of  prior  transitory  and  short-­‐term  technological  fixes.   Advancements  in  transportation  are  responsible  for  sprawling,  inefficient  urban   design,  whereas,  increased  global  interconnection  is  the  result  of  progress  in   communication  technology.  Now,  companies  designing  smart  cities,  such  as  IBM,  are   turning  to  technology  once  again  to  prepare  for  the  great  urban  migration  and   coming  “perfect  storm.”  These  advancements  and  worsening  conditions  have   materialized  due  to  progressive  actions  taken  over  hundreds  of  years.  Progress  and   time  can  also  be  used  to  consider  smart  city  creation.     Smart  cities  are  hoping  to  leverage  the  power  of  computers  and  analytic  software  to   generate  solutions,  however,  time  is  an  important  factor  with  rapidly  advancing   technology.  Relative  to  other  city’s  long  history  of  slow  emergence  and  self-­‐ organization,  smart  cities  are  being  built  at  an  incredibly  fast  rate,  building   something  in  a  matter  of  years  that  previously  took  hundreds,  if  not  thousands,  of   years  to  develop;  Songdo  was  built  in  10  years,  while  Rome  has  a  history  dating   back  thousands  of  years.  Conversely,  relative  to  technology,  10  years  is  a  long  time.   Smart  cities  are  being  designed  around  the  most  current  innovative  practices,  yet  by   the  time  cities  are  built,  they  risk  already  being  technologically  dated.  Devising   plausible  solutions  by  today’s  assumptions  risks  underestimating  or  incorrectly   predicting  sudden  and  rapid  change.  As  Townsend  explains,  “With  smart  cities,   trends  that  only  recently  appeared  small  on  the  horizon  now  loom  larger  and  larger.   Everything  seems  to  be  speeding  up,  getting  bigger,  or  getting  worse  than  was   expected”  (Townsend  322).  The  idea  follows  closely  with  the  relentless  pursuit  of   perfection  and  how  it  is  defining  a  more  concrete  rule-­‐set.     Realizing  the  role  of  innovation  in  preventing  collapse  will  help  explain  the  flaws  in   sustainable  thinking  and  the  need  for  increased  resilience.  In  the  Ted  Talk,  “The   Surprising  Math  of  Cities,”  physicist  Geoffrey  West  talks  about  the  rapid  growth  of   cities;  when  a  city  doubles  in  size,  it  more  than  doubles  in  nearly  every  other  aspect   including  energy  consumption,  crime,  wealth,  and  consumerism.  As  the  popularity   of  cities  continues  growing  at  steeper  rates,  humanity’s  consumption  and   production  rates  will  similarly  increase,  which  will  eventually  cause  us  to  reach  a   level  that  can  no  longer  sustain  the  growth  rate.  When  this  level  is  reached,  collapse   follows.  West  believes  there  have  been  several  times  in  history  when  society  has   been  on  the  verge  of  collapse,  but  society  found  a  way  to  prevent  it  through   innovation.  Each  time  the  growth  rate  is  maximized,  a  new  innovation  is  introduced   and  the  cycle  begins  again.  The  issue  is  that  each  time  the  growth  rate  is  restarted;  it   takes  less  time  to  reach  a  point  of  collapse,  thus  decreasing  the  time  before  a  new   innovation  is  needed  (“The  Surprising  Math”  2011).       The  “Waves  of  Innovation”  theory  and  graph  (below)  presented  in  Resilient  Cities   supplements  West’s  observations.  The  theory  argues  we  are  entering  the  Sixth   Wave  of  industrialism,  which  is  “a  complete  reorientation  of  industrial  society  to  a   different  set  of  technologies  and  a  rethinking  of  how  we  organize  cities”  (Newman  
  • 7.   7   52).  The  graph  that  explains  the  theory  depicts  each  wave  as  building  upon  the   previous  in  the  form  of  an  arch  that  becomes  taller  and  skinnier.  The  point  at  which   one  wave  overlaps  with  the  next  is  representative  of  a  potential  systemic  tipping   point  for  collapse.  With  “Innovation”  on  the  y-­‐axis  and  “Time”  on  the  x-­‐axis,   increasingly  taller  and  narrower  arches  means  innovation  is  advancing  at  an   exponential  rate.  West’s  “Surprising  Math  of  Cities”  and  the  “Sixth  Wave”  theory   explain  that  with  each  innovation,  growth  happens  quicker  and  there  is  less  time  to   innovate  before  collapse.    Eventually  we  will  reach  a  wave  in  which  the  transition  is   too  quick/steep  and  not  manageable.  Building  sustainably  will  slow  the  progression   of  these  arches  down,  but  it  will  only  postpone  the  inevitable  collapse.               Similarly,  Buzz  Hollings’  “panarchy  theory”  explains  why  the  “perfect  storm”  of   global  problems  must  be  addressed  with  great  urgency  and  why  growth  cannot   continue  indefinitely.  His  theory  proposes  that  all  systems  go  through  an  “adaptive   cycle  of  growth,  collapse,  regeneration,  and  again  growth”  (Homer-­‐Dixon  2006,   226).  According  to  the  model,  as  a  system  grows  it  increases  in  interconnectivity   and  efficiency,  but  ultimately  becomes  less  resilient  since  high  connectivity  reduces   a  system’s  ability  to  absorb  and  withstand  shock.      
  • 8.   8    (Thomas  Homer-­‐Dixon)     Hollings  uses  the  ecosystem  of  a  forest  to  further  demonstrate  this  concept:  During   the  early  growth  phase,  the  number  of  animals  and  plants  rapidly  increase  as  they   arrive  to  exploit  the  forest’s  ecological  benefits.  The  flows  of  energy,  activity,  and   genetic  material  become  more  complex.  As  this  happens,  the  forest  develops  more   ways  to  maintain  stability  and  self-­‐regulate.  By  the  time  it  reaches  latter  stages  of   the  growth  phase,  “the  mechanisms  of  self-­‐regulation  become  highly  diverse  and   finely  tuned.”  This  results  in  all  species  adapting  and  becoming  dependent  on  a   specific  range  of  circumstances  so  that  “when  a  shock  pushes  the  forest  far  outside   that  range,  it  can’t  cope.  Also,  the  forest’s  high  connectedness  helps  any  shock  travel   faster  across  the  ecosystem”  (Homer-­‐Dixon  227).  We  are  currently  in  the  late   growth  phase  and  on  the  cusp  of  collapse,  but  resilient  cities  offer  a  solution  for   preventing  the  extreme  collapse  that  would  result  in  a  massive  decrease  in   population  and  in  political/economic/social  complexity  (Newman  37).       Smart  cities  are  the  latest  entry  in  a  list  of  innovations  that  temporarily  postpone   collapse.  Individuals  behind  Songdo  claim  to  have  built  a  city  of  the  future,  but  they   are  actually  building  for  the  past.  Sustainability  was  a  solution  when  there  was  still   time  to  reverse  humanity’s  progressive  actions  and  prevent  the  “perfect  storm,”  but   that  time  has  long  passed.  The  longer  each  new  innovation  delays  collapse,  society   advances  one  step  higher  on  an  unstable  ladder  destined  to  tumble.       Theme  3:  Cartesian  thought  vs.  Complexity  Thinking     Sustainability  and  resiliency  fit  into  a  larger  scope  of  conceptual  debate  between   Cartesian  thought  and  complexity  thinking.  Modern  Cartesian  thought  began  in  the   17th  century  when  popular  philosophers  like  Rene  Descartes  propagated  a  new  
  • 9.   9   perspective,  which  saw  the  natural  world  as  mechanistic,  predictable,  and   consequently,  controllable:  “To  the  modern  mind,  nature  is  conceived  as  something   that  can  be  understood,  mastered,  and  put  to  human  service”  (Kellner  and  Best   1997,  200).  Cartesian  Dualism  is  the  separation  of  the  mind  and  body  or,  more   generally,  the  separation  of  the  mental  and  physical.  Thinking  about  the  world  as   something  that  could  be  manipulated  according  to  the  laws  of  physics  was  much   different  from  previous  perspectives  that  viewed  the  entire  world  as  living  entities   (e.g.  Mother  Nature  and  Father  Sky).  Cartesian  thought  and  its  controlling  attitude   towards  nature  embedded  itself  within  cultural  practices,  such  as  French  garden   architecture  of  the  17th  and  18th  centuries:  Naturally  spawning  and  self-­‐organizing   flowers  and  shrubs  were  reconfigured  and  sectioned  into  patterns  until  the  artfully   designed  garden  resembled  a  “mathematician’s  blueprint”  (Brammann  2004).  Smart   cities  are  being  reimagined  in  a  similar  fashion,  granted  on  a  much  grander  scale.     Many  smart  cites  are  being  built  entirely  at  once  with  the  construction  process   taking  a  structural  approach  by  following  a  pre-­‐planned  city  blueprint  that  outlines   the  city  as  a  grid  with  space  and  place  clearly  defined  and  separated.  In  the  book   Emergence,  Steven  Johnson  says  cities  are  comparable  to  nature  because  they  are   self-­‐organizing  meaning  they  are  not  built  or  conceived  by  a  higher  authority,  but   rather,  gradually  emerge  as  many  smaller  elements  converge  in  one  collective  area.   Much  like  the  evolutionary  growth  and  development  of  plants,  this  bottom-­‐up   process  (as  opposed  to  top-­‐down)  was  slow  and  self-­‐occurring  without  any   preconceived  notions.  Because  of  these  qualities,  cities  are  “complex  adaptive   systems  that  display  emergent  behavior”  (Johnson  18).  Contrary  to  pre-­‐modern   cities,  smart  cities  are  no  longer  emergent  or  self-­‐organizing  properties  because   they  are  intentionally  planned  and  built.       Cartesian  thought  began  in  the  18th  century,  but  it  wasn’t  until  the  Industrial   Revolution  that  it  inspired  a  greater  authoritative  attitude  towards  cities  and  nature.   James  Scott,  author  of  Seeing  Like  a  State,  refers  to  the  progressive  attitude  and   relentless  pursuit  of  efficiency  that  occurred  in  Western  Europe  and  North  America   from  1830  to  World  War  I  as  “high  modernism,”  which  was  centered  on:     “A  supreme  self-­‐confidence  about  continued  linear  progress,  the   development  of  scientific  and  technical  knowledge,  the  expansion  of   production,  the  rational  design  of  social  order,  the  growing  satisfaction  of   human  needs,  and,  not  least,  an  increasing  control  over  nature  (including   human  nature)  commensurate  with  scientific  understanding  of  natural  laws”   (Scott  1998,  89-­‐90).     At  the  forefront  of  this  extreme  Cartesian  perspective  were  individuals  such  as  the   French  architect  and  planner  Charles-­‐Edouard  Jeanneret,  who  is  better  known  as  Le   Corbusier.  He  found  incongruity  and  disarray  repulsive  and  sought  to  design  a  city   of  straight  lines  and  right  angles.  Le  Corbusier  envisioned  the  “ideal”  industrial  city   with  graphic  simplicity  and  feared  the  chaos  of  complexity  (Scott  105-­‐107).  He   wanted  to  standardize  entire  cities  so  that  every  part—from  city  blocks  to  door  
  • 10.   10   frames  to  single  screws—adhered  to  uniform  code  (Scott  109).    Christopher   Alexander’s  essay  “A  City  is  Not  a  Tree”  critiques  the  simplified  approach  taken  by   urban  planners  and  helps  to  better  understand  the  problems  with  the  Cartesian   view  and  “high  modernism.”     Humans  have  difficulty  accepting  and  interpreting  postmodern  thought  and  instead   reduce  the  city  to  specified,  separated  areas  because  we  struggle  to  comprehend  the   entirety  of  the  city’s  intricacies.  Alexander  suggests  urban  areas  are  consistently   designed  incorrectly  because  the  mind  is  not  capable  of  comprehending  the  city’s   full  complexity  (Alexander  1965,  18).  Instead,  human’s  primitive  psyche  leads  the   mind  to  think  of  the  city  as  a  tree  structure  where  “no  piece  of  any  unit  is  ever  a   connected  to  other  units,  except  through  the  medium  of  that  unit  as  a  whole”   (Alexander  10).  Exhibiting  postmodern  thought,  Alexander  argues  the  city  is  far  too   complex  to  be  analyzed  as  a  tree  due  to  the  tremendous  influential  overlap  between   units,  which  results  in  an  extremely  more  interdependent  city  than  a  tree  structure   permits.  Consequently,  urban  planners  are  thinking  about  cities  too  simplistically:   “It  is  this  lack  of  structural  complexity,  characteristics  of  trees,  which  is  crippling   our  conceptions  of  the  city”  (Alexander  5).  Alexander’s  differentiation  between   thinking  about  a  city  as  a  tree  instead  of  a  much  more  intricate  “semilattice”   structure  demonstrates  the  extreme  difficulty  associated  with  properly  designing  a   city.  A  “semilattice”  is  a  collection  of  elements  that  overlap  and  influence  each  other,   both  directly  and  indirectly.  Ironically,  smart  cities  seek  to  add  another  layer  of   complexity  by  creating  a  more  technologically  interconnected  (ubiquitous)  city.     If  cities  are  to  distance  themselves  from  the  Cartesian  design,  then  embracing   complexity  thinking  is  essential.  Doing  so  will  shift  the  perceptions  of  urban   planners  so  that  they  have  a  “multiple-­‐use,  mixed-­‐use  view  of  cities  and  regions”   (Townsend  77).  By  embracing  this  new  stance,  planners  will  understand  that   seemingly  unrelated  things  will  often  share  commonalities  and  influence  with  each   other.  Schools  should  not  be  seen  as  just  schools,  nor  should  libraries  be  seen  as  just   libraries,  but  rather  they  should  be  evaluated  in  terms  of  how  they  are  related  and   affect  each  other  (Townsend  77).  The  university  city  of  Cambridge,  for  example,   demonstrates  that  university  life  overlaps  with  activities  like  going  to  the  movies,   having  coffee,  and  pub-­‐crawling.  Cambridge  is  a  natural  city  “where  university  and   city  have  grown  together  gradually,  the  physical  units  overlap  because  they  are  the   physical  residues  of  city  systems  and  university  systems  which  overlap”  (Alexander   14).  Cambridge  is  an  example  of  how  progress  and  growth  have  created  a  more   complex  system.  Understanding  the  interconnectedness  and  influence  among   different  systems  is  a  key  element  in  complexity  thinking.  Supporters  of  this   postmodern  scientific  thinking  claim  “that  the  modern  scientific  paradigm  is  giving   way  in  the  20th  century  to  a  new  mode  of  scientific  thinking  based  on  concepts  such   as  entropy,  evolution,  organism,  indeterminacy,  probability,  relativity,   complementarity,  interpretation,  chaos,  complexity,  and  self-­‐organization”  (Kellner   and  Best  195).  Many  of  these  concepts  are  explored  throughout  this  paper.      
  • 11.   11   The  modern  Cartesian  idea  of  sustainability  advocates  for  the  employment  of  new   techniques  to  solve  unintended  issues  caused  by  previous  progressive  actions,  while   the  post-­‐modern  (complexity  thinking)  idea  of  resilience  introduces  a  different  type   of  progress—one  that  acknowledges  certain  issues  cannot  be  fixed  and  prepares  for   their  effects.  Resilience  is  complexity  thinking  because  it  understands  some  things   are  beyond  the  control  of  humans  and  exhibits  a  new  type  of  progressive  thought   and  action  that  aims  for  mitigation  instead  of  fixation.  This  distinction  is  important   because  smart  cities  are  addressing  and  practicing  sustainable,  but  not  resilient,   living.  As  a  product  of  Cartesian  thought,  smart  cities  embrace  sustainability   because  it  suggests  humans  can  still  determine  our  destiny.  They  are  not  building   for  resilience  because  that  would  be  admitting  to  a  loss  of  control.  Sustainable   thinking  is  flawed  because  it  often  involves  simplifying  the  complex  so  it  can  be   “understood,”  mastered,  and  controlled.     Theme  4:  Capitalism  and  Poor     Johnson  supports  Alexander’s  argument  that  the  mind  has  a  tendency  to  group  and   classify  the  unknown  by  writing,  “When  we  see  repeated  shapes  and  structures   emerging  out  of  apparent  chaos,  we  can’t  help  looking  for  pacemakers”  (Johnson   40).  A  pacemaker  is  effectively  a  god-­‐like  figure  that  creates  and  designs  a  system.   The  absence  of  a  pacemaker  is  a  key  aspect  of  Johnson's  emergent  properties  idea,   which  says  pre-­‐modern  cities  spawned  from  the  bottom-­‐up  in  a  self-­‐organizing   fashion.  Over  time,  they  slowly  became  more  intricate  and  interconnected  due  to   advancing  technology  and  increasing  population.  They  progressed  to  more  complex   “semilattice”  structures,  without  an  authority  figure  overseeing  the  city’s  initial   emergence.  With  many  smart  cities  being  built  in  a  short  time,  there  is  now  an   apparent  pacemaker  presence.  These  pacemakers,  who  include  companies  like  IBM   Corporation,  Siemens  AG,  and  Cisco  Systems,  are  failing  to  understand  the  difficulty   in  the  ambitious  task  they  are  undertaking.  Pacemakers  are:     “Weaving  an  array  of  new  technologies  –  the  Internet  of  Things,  predictive   analytics,  and  ubiquitous  video  communications  –  into  the  city  on  the  scale  of   the  electrical  grid  a  century  ago…much  of  what  they  have  done  to  date  is   simply  cobble  together  solutions  from  off-­‐the-­‐shelf  components,  with  little   investment  in  research  and  development  of  new  core  technologies”   (Townsend  10).       Corporate  involvement  solidifies  the  modern  city’s  transition  from  a  bottom-­‐up  to  a   top-­‐down  construct.  Originally,  cities  were  nothing  but  a  self-­‐organizing   manifestation  of  physical  interactions  that  resulted  from  a  natural  clustering  of   individuals.  Cities  gradually  became  more  controlled  as  patriarchal  societies  gave   rise  to  government  philosophies.  Still,  the  ruling  bodies  were  overseeing  an   originally  self-­‐organized  structure,  which  is  no  longer  the  case  with  huge   corporations  tackling  multi-­‐billion  dollar  city  projects.  Adam  Greenfield  says,  “It’s  as   if  the  foundational  works  of  twentieth-­‐century  urbanist  thought  had  been   collectively  authored  by  United  States  Steel,  General  Motors,  the  Otis  Elevator  
  • 12.   12   Company  and  Bell  Telephone”  (Greenfield).       The  fight  for  the  “right  to  the  city”  (Harvey  2008)  between  Jane  Jacobs  and  Robert   Moses  offers  an  appropriate  example  to  summarize  the  high  modernist  takeover  of   the  city.  As  previously  mentioned,  Jacobs  advocated  for  a  city  created  and  run  by   citizens—random  sidewalk  interactions  can  shape  a  city—and  understood  the   implications  of  top-­‐heavy  influence.  Moses,  an  urban-­‐development  tycoon,  was  a   Cartesian  mastermind  of  designing  the  city  like  a  “tree.”  In  1961,  Moses  announced   plans  to  build  a  highway  through  the  heart  of  SoHo,  which  would  disrupt  a  vibrant   community  (shaped  from  the  bottom-­‐up)  filled  with  “artists,  writers,  Puerto  Rican   immigrants,  and  working-­‐class  Italian-­‐Americans”  (Johnson  50).  Jacobs   triumphantly  defeated  Moses  and  his  destructive  plans  arguing  that  learning  from   streets  that  do  work  is  a  better  solution  than  bulldozing  and  starting  over.   Unfortunately,  Jacobs’  victory  over  the  higher  controlling  bodies  is  not  a  common   occurrence.  Her  work  to  empower  everyday  citizens  and  preserve  culture  came   from  an  understanding  of  cities  as  complex  adaptive  systems—products  of  many   years  of  self-­‐organization  and  influences  from  varied  cultures—and  from  an   understanding  that  destroying  and  rebuilding  does  not  solve  problems,  but  rather   only  causes  more.  The  rise  of  smart  cities  suggests  individuals  like  Johnson  and   Jacobs  are  the  minority  in  the  battles  against  their  Robert  Moses  counterparts.       A  significant  problem  with  smart  city  design  stems  from  the  capitalistic  mindset  of   current  key  players  who  “are  making  choices,  about  technology,  business,  and   governance,  with  little  or  no  input  from  the  broader  community  of  technologists,   civic  leaders,  and  citizens  themselves”  (Townsend  110).  Ultimately,  this  line  of   thinking  has  resulted  in  top-­‐heavy  input  by  wealthy  individuals  and  neglect  in   listening  to  the  everyday  citizen,  especially  lower-­‐class  individuals.  Songdo  has   publicized  itself  as  a  sustainable  smart  city,  yet  a  closer  look  reveals  the  underlying   neoliberal  inspiration.       In  2001,  the  national  government  granted  Songdo’s  development  rights  to  the  South   Korean  company  POSCO  Engineering  and  Construction.    Partnering  with  Gale   International,  an  American  based  building  design  firm,  the  two  companies  soon   established  themselves  as  the  main  pacemakers  behind  Songdo’s  development   (Songdo  International  Business  District).  Originally  designed  as  a  global  city  for   commerce,  the  city  has  assumed  an  “outward-­‐oriented  and  relatively  cosmopolitan   sensibility.”  The  city  is  now  branding  itself  as  an  “international  business  hub”   because  of  its  prime  location.     Located  near  the  Incheon  International  Airport  and  built  within  the  Free  Economic   Zone  (IFEZ),  Southeast  Asia’s  first  free  economic  zone,  Songdo  caters  towards   wealthy  business  travelers  and  foreign  investors.  In  doing  so,  Songdo  is  encouraging   the  colonization  of  international  companies  that  do  not  have  a  presence  anywhere   else  in  South  Korea.    As  the  prominent  global  business  center  of  IFEZ,  Songdo   citizens  have  access  to  goods  and  services  not  offered  to  the  rest  of  South  Korea,   such  as  private  medical  institutions  that  can  import  cheap  medical  treatments  that  
  • 13.   13   are  illegal  elsewhere  in  the  country  (Incheon  FEZ  Overview).  With  Songdo  under   corporate  control  and  largely  influenced  by  foreign  investors,  the  smart  city  design   is  viewed  as  a  means  to  attract  international  and  domestic  corporations,  instead  of  a   solution  to  the  “perfect  storm.”       The  freedoms  Songdo  enjoys  by  existing  within  the  boundaries  of  an  economic  free   zone  raise  questions  about  sovereignty  issues.  The  IFEZ  allows  companies  operating   in  Songdo  certain  privileges  not  permissible  by  the  South  Korean  government,  thus   giving  the  city  autonomous  decision-­‐making  powers;  Songdo  corporations  are  fully   exercising  their  free  economic  zone  rights  and  emerging  as  the  city’s  primary   decision  makers.    With  a  completion  date  slated  for  2020  (Incheon  FEZ  Overview),   the  IFEZ  is  still  developing,  but  Songdo’s  access  to  a  diverse  offering  of  foreign   investors  and  companies  has  already  fashioned  a  noticeable  separation  from  all   other  cities.     Free  economic  zones  are  a  product  of  neoliberal  globalization  that  has  sought  to   privatize  and  liberalize  public  sector  monopolies  and  inject  economic  prosperity   into  the  global  economy  by  moving  industry  to  developing  countries  and  benefitting   from  the  cheap  labor  and  new  markets.  This  “commodification”  of  urban  services   (McDonald  and  Ruiters  2005)  explains  the  emergence  of  not  only  IFEZ  but  Songdo,   as  well.  Gale  and  POSCO  took  advantage  of  the  open  global  market  that  catered   towards  private  sector  investments.  Songdo  demonstrates  why  smart  cities  are  the   latest  development  spawning  from  the  neoliberal  configuration  of  globally   networked  cities,  described  by  Mark  Swilling’s  “Conceptualizing  Urbanism,  Ecology,   and  Networked  Infrastructure.”  The  privatization  and  exploitation  of  urban  areas   have  resulted  in  what  Swilling  calls  “splintered  urbanism.”  The  term  indicates  the   fading  vision  of  an  inclusive  society  and  any  hope  for  global  minorities  benefitting   from  globalization.  Smart  city  designers  are  the  modern-­‐day  equivalent  to  Robert   Moses  and  Le  Corbusier,  both  of  which  favored  progress,  efficiency,  and  control  over   civic  well  being  (Swilling  2011,  84).  By  appealing  to  the  wealthy,  smart  cities  like   Songdo  perpetuate  the  divide  between  the  rich  and  the  poor.     Essentially  one  large  computer,  smart  cities  are  gated  communities  separated   technologically  rather  than  by  physical  structures  (Hodson  and  Marvin  2009).  Such   a  separation  between  smart  cities  and  surrounding  communities  could  pose  future   problems  by  perpetuating  further  class  stratification  and  marginalization.    In  the   essay  “The  Right  to  the  City,”  author  David  Harvey  argues,  “Quality  of  urban  life  has   become  a  commodity,  as  has  the  city  itself,  in  a  world  where  consumerism,  tourism,   cultural  and  knowledge-­‐based  industries  have  become  major  aspects  of  the  urban   political  economy”  (Harvey  31).    The  result  has  been  a  configuration  of  market   niches  within  the  modern  urban  space.    The  proliferation  of  urban  sprawl,  such  as   shopping  malls,  fast  food  restaurants,  and  supercenters,  is  treating  privileged   wealth  holders  to  a  delusional  urban  experience,  which  Sharon  Zukin  cleverly  calls   ‘pacification  by  cappuccino’  (Harvey  31).    Free  market  capitalism  and  the  notion  of   possessive  individualism  have  made  the  rich  richer  and  the  poor  poorer,  thus   leading  to  cities,  especially  in  the  developing  world,  that  are:    
  • 14.   14       “Splitting  into  different  separated  parts,  with  the  apparent  formation   of  many  ‘microstates’.  Wealthy  neighbourhoods  provided  with  all   kinds  of  services,  such  as  exclusive  schools,  golf  courses,  tennis  courts   and  private  police  patrolling  the  area  around  the  clock  intertwine   with  illegal  settlements  where  water  is  available  only  at  public   fountains,  no  sanitation  system  exists,  electricity  is  pirated  by  a   privileged  few,  the  roads  become  mud  streams  whenever  it  rains,  and   where  house-­‐sharing  is  the  norm.  Each  fragment  appears  to  live  and   function  autonomously,  sticking  firmly  to  what  it  has  been  able  to   grab  in  the  daily  fight  for  survival”  (Harvey  32).     Smart  cities  are  ostracizing  the  poor  and  creating  a  closed  loop  system  that  will   continue  decreasing  resilience.  Neoliberal  globalization  is  adding  greater  structure   to  a  rule-­‐set  already  dangerously  close  to  overshoot  and  collapse.  The  ever-­‐ increasing  levels  of  hierarchical  order  require  a  pacemaker  to  function  as  they   continue  on  a  Cartesian  path  seeking  total  and  efficient  control.  As  the  progress   continues  and  the  rule-­‐set  becomes  more  defined,  resilience  is  declining  and   collapse  is  nearing.  Meanwhile,  the  global  south  maintain  a  standard  of  living  that  is   relatively  more  sustainable  and  resilient.       Conclusion     There  is  incredible  irony  in  the  smart  city  boom.  First  world  countries  are  wealthier   because  they  have  emerged  successful  in  a  capitalistic  world.  Their  prosperity  has   led  to  greater  consumption  and  environmental  harm.  To  combat  the  eco  issues  that   they  primarily  created  through  previous  progressive  actions,  first  world  countries   are  creating  a  new  capitalistic  product  (smart  cities)  that  will  continue  the  trend  of   innovating  to  generate  temporary  solutions.  All  the  while,  the  poor  remain  excluded   and  marginalized.  Yet,  the  progress  of  the  globalized  minority  and  developing   nations  will  be  the  defining  factor  in  determining  the  world’s  future.     The  many  issues  surrounding  capitalism  raises  the  question:  is  resilience  possible  in   a  capitalistic  system?  The  answer  is  that  it  is  possible,  but  the  best  form  of  resiliency   is  not  possible.  If  complexity  thinking  and  building  for  resiliency  (instead  of   sustainability)  become  more  common,  resilient  cities  can  be  developed.  Still,  the   solitary,  competitive  attitude  of  capitalism  is  a  contrast  to  resiliency  thinking,  which   has  little  to  do  with  the  “individual”  and  identifies  community  building  as  a   necessary  component.  As  long  as  corporations  are  the  main  pacemakers  in   designing  and  controlling  a  smart  city,  Cartesian  thought  will  be  at  the  forefront  of   smart  city  development.  Transitioning  away  from  this  thought  process  and  towards   a  postmodern  mindset  means  narrowing  the  gap  between  corporations,   governments,  and  grassroots  communities.  In  order  to  build  resiliency,  competition   between  groups  needs  to  become  cooperation,  meaning  top-­‐down  pacemakers  must   work  with  bottom-­‐up  proponents.    
  • 15.   15     If  Johnson’s  description  of  emergent  properties  and  Jane  Jacobs’  theory  on  cities  as   being  a  bottom-­‐up  phenomenon  is  any  indication  of  how  to  approach  resiliency,   then  the  solution  lies  in  the  grassroots,  community  projects.  The  grassroots  may  be   where  solutions  lie,  however,  their  influences  will  not  happen  quickly  enough   because  of  the  “perfect  storm.  Songdo  demonstrates  companies  are  concerned  with   profits,  while  local  communities  don’t  have  the  necessary  resources  or  power  to   implement  strategies  fast  enough;  thus,  the  solution  appears  to  be  with  policy   makers  to  unify  the  two  contrasting  groups.  They  will  need  to  employ  companies  to   build  and  design  solutions  that  benefit  entire  communities,  not  just  the  rich.  If  the   smart  city  is  successful,  it  will  likely  be  due  to  bottom-­‐up  initiatives  that  slowly   make  new  contributions  to  the  city  over  time,  not  unlike  the  Internet’s  progress.  The   Internet  is  a  result  of  communal  citizen  participation,  which  is  essential  for   implementing  an  effective,  lasting  smart  city  model.  Promoting  a  trans-­‐disciplinary   culture  is  important  because  it  promotes  community  building  by  uniting  different   groups  of  people  through  shared  commonalities.  Walled-­‐off  smart  cites  that  are   crafted  from  input  primarily  from  corporations  negatively  affects  trans-­‐disciplinary   culture.     Just  as  Cartesian  thought  is  a  product  of  Western  philosophy  and  civilization  so,  too,   is  individualism.  Rene  Descartes  is  often  deemed  the  “father  of  modern  philosophy”   because  of  his  groundbreaking  work  theorizing  the  “solitary  self.”  Descartes   emphasis  on  individualism  “is  as  defining  a  characteristic  of  our  present  civilization   as  capitalism,  materialism,  technology,  and  global  expansion”  (Brammann).  Smart   cities  are  a  product  of  these  reductionist  characteristics;  therefore,  complexity   thinking  and  postmodernism  are  largely  absent  in  smart  city  design.     Jane  Jacobs  successfully  preserved  poor  neighborhoods  by  opposing  a  highway   expansion,  however  her  victory  over  capitalism  is  rare.  Smart  cities  mark  the  latest   capitalistic  step  in  city  development  because  “as  people  become  richer,  they  have   increasingly  chosen  cities  based  on  lifestyle,”  which  has  birthed  the  consumer  city   (Glaeser  10).  As  long  as  capitalism  continues  fueling  cities,  the  “wall”  surrounding   cities  will  climb  to  greater  heights.     Bibliography     Alexander,  Christopher.  "A  City  Is  Not  a  Tree."  Architectural  Forum  (1965).  Rudi.net.   Web.  11  May  2015.     Brammann,  Jorn  K.  "Descartes:  The  Solitary  Self."  Frostburg  State  University.  2004.   Web.  11  May  2015.   <http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/Descartes.htm>.     Caring  for  the  Earth:  A  Strategy  for  Sustainable  Development.  Rep.  IUCN,  UNEP,   WWF,  Oct.  1991.  Web.  14  May  2015.   <https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/CFE-­‐003.pdf>.  
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