The brain of the Smart City. The subcutaneous existence of cybernetic logics in the Command & Control Center. The example of India

Abstract

The starting point of this contribution is the observation that so-called Command & Control Centers are becoming important building blocks of urban development in the course of Smart City projects – in the Smart City Mission in India, which we investigated, but also worldwide. The idea of surveying, making legible and controlling cities in a single central room is presented as a new and contemporary answer to the challenges of cities in the „digital age“– not least according to global consultancies and local elites. However, we show that these approaches are based on logics that were already formulated in the mid-20th century as part of what is known as cybernetics. Such a historical perspective makes it possible to work out the translations and materializations of these logics in specific contexts as well as the ruptures that occur within them. At the same time, it breaks up the supposedly ahistorical and apolitical character of this urban development and opens up a view for alternative paths.