Smooth City

In cities around the world a new urban condition is spreading rapidly, characterized by ever-increasing levels of ‘perfection’, efficiency, control, and the active eradication of any aberration or alternative. In the smooth city, urban space is sanitized and urban life is compressed into a seamless experience. While the need for safe, clean, and well-functioning urban environments is clear, the rise of the smooth city undermines the democratic nature and emancipatory potential of cities as it leaves almost no space for anything that is experimental or incompatible with dominant norms. Smooth City offers a critical analysis of the origins, characteristics, and consequences of the smooth city, while also offering a starting point to challenge the obsession with perfection and instead collectively work towards porosity in the urban realm.