Thesis abstract:

Smart city as a concept is being increasingly adopted by the cities across the globe. The use of ICT to address the concerns of urban development has been a common trait in the Global North and South alike. Replicating the solutions of the North in the cities of the South has raised several concerns about contextually informed smart city solutions, primarily due to the magnitude and intensity of marginalization and socio-economic vulnerability in the South. A primary criticism of smart cities in the South is the dismissal of the informal sector. In addition to these concerns, climate change has intensified the socio-economic concerns of the South as the cities lack adequate resources to adopt smart environmental initiatives. This PhD focuses on comprehensively understanding the interconnections between the dimensions of smart cities, informality, and climate change in the context of India. The research conducts a multi-stage smart city policy analysis at the national and state scales to examine to smart city proposals in India. The study focuses on developing a deeper understanding of the impacts of smart city initiatives on the social and environmental concerns of the urban informal sector, by exploring the interconnections between the three dimensions, while also aiming to make a theoretical contribution to more-than-Northern smart urbanism discourse cognizant of the concerns of informality and climate change in the South.