Yesterday, I had the privilege of Chairing the African Studies seminar at the final University of Edinburgh.
The speaker was Prince Guma from the Urban Studies Institute at the University of Sheffield. His presentation was titled "Smart Cities and African Urbanism, through the lens of #Nairobi.”
It was fascinating to learn how people in the informal settlements of Nairobi are negotiating the entry of smart technologies into their neighbourhood, especially digital meters for water and electricity. His work caution against techno-deterministic ideas that imagine that technology will solve the problems that our cities face. In fact, without addressing the underlying issues, it seems that these digital technologies often just add another layer of complexity that city residents have to navigate.
Overall, it was interesting to see how these so called 'smart technologies' are not smarter than people.
