ABSTRACT
The idea of urban resilience has been framed as a response to this problem of uneven adaptation and new 'smart' technologies, infrastructures and data flows are increasingly promoted in a similar vein. The starting point is that there remain three key sustainability challenges facing cities: carbon control and environmental protection; accountable governance; and spatial and economic inequality. The chapter focuses on the scholarship of justice and inequality. Smart, sustainable and resilient city initiatives are all ultimately political-economic projects and an analysis of the implications for carbon, accountability and inequality is essential for the evaluation of their potential consequences. The chapter lays out the contradictions and core arguments surrounding smart, sustainable and resilient cities, respectively of the extent to which smart, sustainable and resilient city initiatives help address the three key challenges of carbon, accountable governance and inequality.
