excerpt:

As William Gibson has famously noted, the future reaches different geographical areas at a different pace. The popular
projections to the future, through movies, literature and television, mostly refer to economically advanced megacities or urban agglomerations. The dominant vision of the ‘smart city’ usually refers to a Koolhaasian generic environment, ultra-modern and devoid of any historical narrative. The different geographical particularities, the local economies, and the dynamic of citizens’ involvement are often left out, shaping an idealized, sterilized imaginary for tomorrow’s cities. In her essay, Shannon Mattern highlights the importance of the local intelligences and situated knowledges, already existing in the ‘urban operating systems,’ in the shaping of tomorrow’s smartest cities. Tomorrows’ speculative and critical perspectives are challenging the ‘smart city’s’ visions by emphasizing the particularities of different areas and underlining the role of the local conditions and needs. Most of the projects are giving special attention to the cities of the Mediterranean region, whose future seems to be specified by the economic crisis, the climate change, and mass population movements.