"It’s time to get rid of the ideological misnomer 'smart cities.'”

Following up on yesterday's "Sidewalk Labs' Smart-Cities Will Create A For-Profit Social Credit System" (GOOG)", a tweet from LSE sociologist David Madden back in July:

It’s time to get rid of the ideological misnomer “smart cities.” What would be a more accurate way to describe this approach to city making—Corporate-controlled surveillance urbanism (CCSU)? Digital urban technocracy? Tracked cities? Big data towns?

— David Madden (@davidjmadden) July 17, 2019

The smart city appellation really is some first rate branding. That we can choose to accept or reject.