GENEALOGY AND CIRCULATION OF THE CONCEPT OF SMART CITIES IN CHILE:

AN URBAN POLICY FAILURE?

Abstract

Although there are studies that describe the circulation of the concept of Smart Cities (SC) in Chile, there is a lack of research that investigates how this concept arises in the Chilean context. Based on the policy mobility approach and Foucault's genealogical method, this article shows the multiple origins of the term. Using mixed methods (analysis of the social network Twitter, ethnography of events, content analysis and interviews with key informants), the results show the national innovation and productivity agenda as the main ancestor, Spain as the main international reference, as well as some reappropriations of the concept, the "National Plan for Intelligent Territories". These results complement and add new elements to the analyzes of the circulation of the concept, accounting not only for the power relations behind the deployment and installation of the Smart Cites concept in Chile, but also that the term arises from the economic and innovation sphere and not from the urban sphere. While in the Global North the concept of Smart Cities appears as a narrative that seems to permeate urban policies and is even called “new urban policy” or “Smart City Policy”, in Chile it does not represent a new type of urbanism or a new “model” of urban development, but rather an urban narrative for the development of technological industries in the city.