Smart Society

Book excerpt: Increasingly, we hear of ‘smart’ cities, communities, governance and people as constituting the basis of initiatives by which we might address various social and environmental problems, particularly those connected with sustainability, usually by means of an ‘intelligent’ connection with the ‘network society’. This book addresses the issues raised by the emergence of ‘smart’ dimensions and initiatives in society, critically engaging with questions surrounding the feasibility of what smart initiatives propose and the extent to which they can really offer solutions to the challenges we face. With attention to the notion of ‘smart’ as applied to the individual, the community, politics and the home, the authors consider the interconnections between these various facets of ‘smart living’ and their relationship to the notion of the smart society as a whole. Drawing on a concrete study of an attempt to concretize smart ideas in the design of a smart, solar home as part of an international project, Smart Society offers the first extended sociological engagement with the notion of smart living.