The Smartification of Everything : Critical Perspectives in Sciences, Arts, and Society

Concerned with the ubiquitous notion of “smartness,” this edited collection advances an interdisciplinary conversation on the dominant perception of emergent technologies as being able to resolve social, urban, environmental, and cultural problems.

From the smart phone to the smart home, smartness has become an almost inescapable reality of everyday life. Supposedly intelligent, interconnected technologies, smart systems have taken on their own forms of life, and it is no longer easy to determine who these systems benefit and what their long-term social and ethical implications may be. In twenty contributions spanning the social sciences, humanities, and the arts, The Smartification of Everything offers a deep dive into a variety of studies that critically interrogate smartification processes and systems.
The book is edited by experts in science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, and sociology, and is written by academics and artists working across a diverse range of disciplines, including geography, architecture, and urban studies, among others. The volume moves beyond the digital hype cycle around smart cities, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things, which presents smart tech as neat spaces of continuous improvement. Instead, the authors illustrate how smartness is partial, messy, and contested, while also situated in specific sociocultural, historical, spatial, and political realities.
The Smartification of Everything questions the potential and the limitations of smart systems and in doing so furthers our understanding of the complex dynamics today among technology, environment, and power.