An alternative smart paradigm

Abstract

Smart City forms the new urban imaginary of the recent era. It primarily emerged from the West and has a wide set of definitions that revolves around the use of technology for urban development. With the concept’s growing popularity in the Global South, countries such as India have adopted it as a national program called Smart City Mission to guide the growth of its cities. However, it fails to address one of the crucial urban challenges of Indian cities - informality. This development model has created urban smart enclaves with aspirations to become a global city and has caused further fragmentation, segregation, and inequalities. The current informal area upgradation is essentially a top-down process seeking change by recognizing people’s needs and empowering them to transform their quality of life.

The graduation project, ‘An alternative smart paradigm,’ explores the possible shift in approach towards an inclusive and just smart city in India by integrating informal areas in planning and governance. The thesis explores redefining the word ‘smart’ through the lens of the local knowledge of the community. Peter Marcuse’s critical planning theory is used as a guiding theory to structure the research. It acts as an operational platform to institutionalize local voices and form a co-production system to recognize the passive actors as smart agents of change.

In order to overcome the shortcomings of the current policies and processes, a ‘Smart Slum Upgrading Program’ is envisioned which converges the existing agendas and is activated using a strategic framework. It is formulated as an evolutionary process of change that revolves around the idea of co-creation and enabling people to become smart citizens. A strategic framework based on people’s values and daily systems is expressed through the design of a spatial framework and finally operationalized using phases of transformation. A collaborative stakeholder engagement is developed to provide the right to the city for the marginalized groups. This project presents a people-centric approach towards informal area upgradation to integrate them within the smart city model and achieve socio-spatial justice.