Electronic Cities

This book examines Electronic Dance Music (EDM) scenes in 18 cities across Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. It focuses on the historical development of these scenes, with an emphasis on the post-2000 context, including the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching effects. Expert contributors highlight the influence of geographical contexts, as well as cultural and political histories, in the development of mainstream EDM scenes and underground Electronic Dance Music Cultures. This expansive work offers additional insights on cultural and creative policies, planning interventions and regulations associated with nightlife management, and provides a detailed analysis of current challenges inherent to the governance of EDM scenes in contemporary cities.

Telecommunications and the City provides the first critical and state-of-the-art review of the relations between telecommunications and all aspects of city development and management. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and a wide body of recent research, the book addresses key academic and policy debates about technological change and the future of cities with a fresh perspective. Through this approach, the complex and crucial transformations underway in cities in which telecommunications have central importance are mapped out and illustrated. Key areas where telecommunications impinge on the economic, social, physical, enviromental and institutional development of cities are illustrated by using boxed extracts and wide range of case study examples from Europe, Japan and North America. Rejecting the extremes of optimism and pessimism in current hype about cities and telecommunications, Telecommunications and the City offers a sophisticated new perspective through which city-telecommunications relations can be understood.

Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity. Smart cities, where technology is used to solve every problem, are hailed as futuristic urban utopias. We are promised that apps, algorithms, and artificial intelligence will relieve congestion, restore democracy, prevent crime, and improve public services. In The Smart Enough City, Ben Green warns against seeing the city only through the lens of technology; taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality. He proposes instead that cities strive to be “smart enough”: to embrace technology as a powerful tool when used in conjunction with other forms of social change—but not to value technology as an end in itself. In a technology-centric smart city, self-driving cars have the run of downtown and force out pedestrians, civic engagement is limited to requesting services through an app, police use algorithms to justify and perpetuate racist practices, and governments and private companies surveil public space to control behavior. Green describes smart city efforts gone wrong but also smart enough alternatives, attainable with the help of technology but not reducible to technology: a livable city, a democratic city, a just city, a responsible city, and an innovative city. By recognizing the complexity of urban life rather than merely seeing the city as something to optimize, these Smart Enough Cities successfully incorporate technology into a holistic vision of justice and equity.

Digital and Smart Cities presents an overview of how technologies shape our cities. There is a growing awareness in the fields of design and architecture of the need to address the way that technology affects the urban condition. This book aims to give an informative and definitive overview of the topic of digital and smart cities. It explores the topic from a range of different perspectives, both theoretical and historical, and through a range of case studies of digital cities around the world. The approach taken by the authors is to view the city as a socially constructed set of activities, practices and organisations. This enables the discussion to open up a more holistic and citizen- centred understanding of how technology shapes urban change through the way it is imagined, used, implemented and developed in a societal context. By drawing together a range of currently quite disparate discussions, the aim is to enable the reader to take their own critical position within the topic. The book starts out with definitions and sets out the various interpretations and aspects of what constitutes and defines digital cities. The text then investigates and considers the range of factors that shape the characteristics of digital cities and draws together different disciplinary perspectives into a coherent discussion. The consideration of the different dimensions of the digital city is backed up with a series of relevant case studies of global city contexts in order to frame the discussion with real world examples.

This book discusses the integration of power electronics, renewable energy, and the Internet of Things (IoT) from the perspective of smart cities in a single volume. The text will be helpful for senior undergraduate, graduate students and academic researchers in diverse engineering fields including electrical, electronics and communication, and computers. The book: Covers the integration of power electronics, energy harvesting, and the IoT for smart city applications Discusses concepts of power electronics and the IoT in electric vehicles for smart cities Examines the integration of power electronics in renewable energy for smart cities Discusses important concepts of energy harvesting including solar energy harvesting, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controllers, and switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) Explores IoT connectivity technologies such as long-term evolution (LTE), narrow band NB-IoT, long-range (LoRa), Bluetooth, and ZigBee (IEEE Standard 802.15.4) for low data rate wireless personal communication applications The text provides the knowledge about applications, technologies, and standards of power electronics, renewable energy, and IoT for smart cities. It will serve as an ideal reference text for senior undergraduate, graduate students and academic researchers in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics and communication engineering, computer engineering, civil engineering, and environmental engineering.

Green Blockchain Technology for Sustainable Smart Cities presents a detailed exploration of the adaptation and implementation of green blockchain technology for sustainable and eco-friendly smart city applications. This book covers all aspects of the topic and explores smart cities ecosystem applications of blockchain technology. Novel architectural and business blockchain use case solutions in smart city implementations are at the core of this book, which will be beneficial for all researchers, engineers, graduate students, smart city practitioners, and city administrators who are engaged in green blockchain and smart cities-related technologies. Covers a wide variety of topics Offers readers multiple perspectives from a variety of disciplines Written by an internationally diverse group of experts in their respective fields Includes a section on use cases as well as current challenges and future directions

This book looks at what makes a city smart by describing, challenging, and offering democratic alternatives to the view that the answer begins and ends with technology. Drawing on worldwide case studies documenting the redevelopment of old and the creation of new cities, it provides an essential guide to the future of urban life in a digital world.