Smart About Cities

The discourse on 'Smart Cities' is everywhere. It promises an era of innovative urban planning, driven by smart urban technologies that will make cities safer, cleaner and, above all, more efficient. Efficiency seems uncontroversial, but does it make for great cities? In this book, Maarten Hajer, Director-general of PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and Ton Dassen, senior researcher sustainable human environment at PBL, plea for a 'smart urbanism' instead of uncritically adopting 'smart cities'.