Does Space Matter in the Smart Age? Exploring How Digital Platforms Connect Across Space in African Cities

By drawing on examples from a number of cities across the continent, this presentation will explore the extent to which place and space matter, in the age of platforms, social media and digital tools, and essentially offers an alternative conception of smart cities. Rather than seeing the smart city as an ideal to be achieved and yet to be implemented, the argument here is that technology infused livelihoods and everyday innovations are what define the digital age. The smart city exists, in the urban everyday, and is continuously being reinvented.