ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the analytical value of studying city experiments. It aims to contribute and dialogue with the large amount of works contemplating, urging for, or critically examining the move towards smart cities by focusing on city experiments. The chapter argues that a way to approach these questions is to set aside, at least temporarily, the ‘smart’ label, and study cases such as Virtual Singapore or San Francisco’s transportation app as ‘city experiments’. Experiments operate on entities that are made experimental, possibly by cutting their ties, standardizing them, making them comparable with each other. The ‘laboratorization’ of the world is particularly well illustrated in the city, as parts of the urban space are turned into testing grounds or entire cities are erected from scratch as test-beds. The variety of experimenters intervening in the MuniMobile initiative consider it important in that it takes part in a renewed understanding of the urban organization.
