ABSTRACT
Smart city initiatives frequently overestimate the transformative power of technology while underestimating the non-technological aspects of urban problems, especially those that are most urgent, such as poverty, inequality and so on. This chapter explores the tensions within the second-generation smart city experiments in Barcelona. It explains the shift of focus from first- to second-generation smart city policies in Barcelona developed by the liberal local government. The chapter then explains how the concept of technological sovereignty and new visions around the smart city emerged. It discusses central tenets behind the Barcelona Digital Plan, a key document that illustrates a significant shift in digital policies to go beyond the first-generation smart city. Finally, the chapter ends with some reflections on the potentialities and limits of this new urban digital paradigm in Barcelona. According to Barcelona City Council, urban challenges such as climate change, resource consumption, employment, wage inequality, housing and data rights were not adequately addressed in the previous smart city strategy.
