Digital Infrastructures and Urban Governance

Abstract

The urban built environment is underpinned by an increasingly complex digital infrastructure, which is posing a variety of unpredictable and unprecedented challenges for urban governance. The paper discusses how the new “hard” digital infrastructures such as broadband are accompanied by the need to understand the governance of public sector information; and in turn how this relates to the emergence of smart city strategies. The paper is illustrated using empirical examples drawn from Australian digital infrastructure development, with reference to the international landscape of “smart city” developments. It argues that there is a significant mismatch between the often small scale, bounded capabilities of municipal government, and the operational expertise and scope of technology firms.