Fourth Year Winner: Dreams of the Merchant-King: Sidewalk Toronto as Neoliberal Project

POLS 4404, Politics and Cultures of Neoliberal Urbanism. CD: Karen Murray.

Abstract

This paper provides a sophisticated, nuanced, and in-depth exploration of Sidewalk Toronto, the controversial development proposed by Alphabet in partnership with the City of Toronto, raising provocative questions about this proposed “smart city,” data-driven and “adaptive,” through a neoliberal lens. The writer deftly demonstrates that such a development, where data is collected on many aspects of the inhabitants’ lives,  would “reorder … power relations from government to business,” “marketise … urban life,” and potentially cause behaviour modification in the people who live there and elsewhere about urban life. Smoothly written and impeccably researched, “Dreams of the Merchant King” provides a superb alternative perspective about the potential and lasting impact of data, surveillance, and information ownership in such future urban developments. Timely and thought-provoking this fascinating discussion is a “must-read” for all.