Research

Current Research: Interruptions in the Smart City

My doctoral research explores how urban residents navigate daily life in smart cities. While plans of smart urbanism are typically driven by the logics of optimization, efficiency, and seamlessness, my study foregrounds the everyday frictions, misalignments, and contingencies that shape how city dwellers inhabit and negotiate their lives and practices in these data-driven cities. The work introduces the concept of interruption-glitches, breakdowns, and everyday acts of tinkering-as moments that render visible the limits of and the multiplicities within smart urbanism. More broadly, the project bridges the literature between smart and platform urbanism with science and technology studies (STS) debates on infrastructures and infrastructuring, offering a grounded perspective on the unfinished, relational, and ever-evolving nature of urban life.