Worlding infrastructure in the global South: Philippine experiments and the art of being ‘smart’ Morgan Mouton To cite this version: Morgan Mouton. Worlding infrastructure in the global South: Philippine experiments and the art of being ‘smart’. Urban Studies, SAGE Publications, 2021, 58 (3), pp.621-638. 10.1177/0042098019891011. hal-02977298 HAL Id: hal-02977298 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02977298 Submitted on 16 Feb 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Special issue article: Smart cities between worlding and provincializing Urban Studies 2021, Vol. 58(3) 621–638 Ó Urban Studies Journal Limited 2020 Worlding infrastructure in the global Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions South: Philippine experiments and DOI: 10.1177/0042098019891011 the art of being ‘smart’ journals.sagepub.com/home/usj Morgan Mouton University of Calgary, Canada Abstract This article explores the material dimensions of ‘smart city’ initiatives in the context of postcolo- nial cities where urban utilities are qualified as deficient. It argues that while such projects may very well be another manifestation of urban entrepreneurialism, they should not be dismissed as an already-outdated research object. Rather, they can be analysed in light of postcolonial cities’ development agenda. Here, I document and analyse the ongoing construction of New Clark City, a smart city project that is envisioned by the current Philippine state administration as a solution to the crisis that Metro Manila’s urban infrastructure is going through. In doing so, I seek to inte- grate Science and Technology Studies’ insights on infrastructure provision with the literature on worlding efforts in cities of the global South. Keywords infrastructure provision, Mega-Manila, provincialising, smart city, splintering urbanism, worlding ᪈㾱 ⭘ޜᵜ᮷᧒䇘ਾ⇆≁෾ᐲ㛼ᲟлĀᲪភ෾ᐲāّ䇞Ⲵ⢙䍘ቲ䶒ˈ൘ਾ⇆≁෾ᐲѝˈ෾ᐲ һъ㻛ᇊᙗѪн䏣DŽᵜ᮷䇔Ѫˈቭ㇑䘉Ӌ亩ⴞᖸਟ㜭ᱟ෾ᐲࡋъ㋮⾎Ⲵਖа⿽㺘⧠ᖒᔿˈ նᆳԜнᓄ㻛㿶Ѫᐢ㓿䗷ᰦⲴ⹄ウሩ䊑DŽ⴨৽ˈᡁԜਟԕṩᦞਾ⇆≁෾ᐲⲴਁኅ䇞〻ᶕ ࠶᷀ᆳԜDŽ൘ᵜ᮷ѝˈᡁ᧿䘠ᒦ࠶᷀Ҷ↓൘䘋㹼ѝⲴᯠݻ᣹ݻᐲ (New Clark City) Ⲵᔪ䇮DŽ 䘉ᱟањᲪភ෾ᐲ亩ⴞˈ㻛⧠ԫ㨢ᖻᇮ᭯ᓌ䇮ᜣѪ䀓ߣབྷ傜ቬ᣹෾ᐲส⹰䇮ᯭ↓൘㓿শ ⲴডᵪⲴᯩṸDŽ㯹↔ˈᡁራ≲ሶ、ᆖᢰᵟ⹄ウሩส⹰䇮ᯭᔪ䇮Ⲵ㿱䀓оޘ⨳ইᯩ෾ᐲⲴ ц⭼ॆ (worlding) ࣚ࣋ᯩ䶒Ⲵ᮷⥞䘋㹼ᮤਸDŽ ޣ䭞䇽 ส⹰䇮ᯭ׋ᓄǃབྷ傜ቬ᣹ǃ㹼ⴱॆǃᲪភ෾ᐲǃ࠶㻲Ⲵ෾ᐲॆǃц⭼ॆ Received January 2019; accepted November 2019 Corresponding author: Morgan Mouton, Department of Community Health Introduction Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of ‘Manila, I think will be, in about 25 years, Calgary, Teaching, Research and Wellness Building (3rd floor), 3280 Hospital Drive NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4Z6, will be a dead city. It will start to decay’, Canada. proclaimed Rodrigo Duterte in a speech Email: [email protected] 622 Urban Studies 58(3) aimed at supporting the development of a potential to destabilise dominant forms of ‘smart city’ on a 9450-hectare tract of land organisation in urban areas; and (2) studies in the north-east of the Philippine capital that critically analyse how smart initiatives city (Rappler, 2017a). In this speech, the have become a way for cities to gain sub- president of the Republic of the Philippines stantial national and international visibility, argues that Metro Manila’s infrastructure is and therefore attract investors. hopeless and beyond repair or improvement, In this article, I argue that considering calling instead for a decentralisation of its what Harris (2013) calls concrete geogra- activities. ‘You cannot rehabilitate the place, phies, and placing the focus on the material you have to baklasin mo ang Maynila [break dimension of smart cities, can help advance Manila apart] to do that’, he adds1 (Rappler, such a research agenda. I am proposing to 2017a). The assertive tone is characteristic of unpack the project of New Clark City Duterte, who does not expand on how he (NCC), a development located north of the envisions moving the 13 million inhabitants Philippine capital region, by examining its currently living in the Philippines’ largest provision of urban services. Following scho- metropolis into a presently empty tract of lars who have expressed similar calls for land. While some would quickly discard this more attention to networked infrastructure statement, on account of the President of provision in urban studies (Gandy, 2005; the Philippines routinely resorting to similar Graham and Marvin, 2001; Lorrain, 2014; angry outbursts and shocking announce- McFarlane and Rutherford, 2008), not least ments, I suggest that this speech is worthy of using a Science and Technology Studies per- consideration. It reveals how critical the sit- spective (Coutard and Guy, 2007), I argue uation of Metro Manila’s infrastructure is that this lens is especially relevant for the perceived to be, and how new, preferably study of smart city initiatives in the global ‘smart’, developments such as Clark are pre- South. I show how infrastructure provision sented as a comprehensive solution to the is a critical aspect of NCC, in that it is problem. Strikingly, it is the newness of the simultaneously presented by its proponents smart city that seems to be appealing for as a condition for, and also a marker of, Duterte: the project is not about improving economic development. With this in mind, I an already-existing built environment and contend that unpacking infrastructure provi- enhancing it with new technologies, but sion can be a heuristic for studying smart rather planning and constructing something city projects. The circulation of technologies entirely novel, integrated and devoid of past and expertise behind networked infrastruc- mistakes. ture highlights the regional and global The present special issue seeks to adopt a dimension of NCC. Consequently, looking global, non-Western-centric approach for at infrastructure provision also contributes the study of the myriad of projects branding to scholarship on worlding cities (Roy, 2011; themselves as smart cities. Acknowledging Roy and Ong, 2011). Meanwhile, unpacking the diversity of smart city initiatives around the practicalities of infrastructure provision the world, it follows a narrow ridge that in NCC is also a way to ground the study, overlooks two strands of smart city scholar- and explore the Philippine political economy ship: (1) studies that point to the need to of urban production. Unfolding the stories provincialise the literature and place more behind the pipes and cables that are being focus on projects that are not initiated by laid under NCC prompts encounters with major state or corporate actors, but rather the local actors involved in the financing, emerge from the periphery, and hold the planning and construction of the project. Mouton 623 This approach also leaves room for local third sections will use NCC as a case in contingencies to be examined and analysed – point. In the second section, I will show in a word, it also echoes the injunctions to how studying planned infrastructure for provincialise our understanding of the pro- NCC helps shed light on the social, eco- duction of smart urbanism. nomic and political objectives of this smart Methodologically, such an approach city initiative. More specifically, I will show relies on a careful documentation of the proj- how, and the extent to which, NCC can be ect, through a monitoring of public-domain characterised as a utopian project – and publications (press releases concerning the with which consequences for the Mega- project, calls for public biddings and notices Manila region. In the third section, I will of awards detailing the planned infrastruc- consider the political economy of infra- ture) and media coverage around the project. structure production, and will discuss the In obtaining the lay of the land for the proj- relevance of the worlding cities grid of anal- ect, one can start to identify the actors ysis for the case of NCC, thus questioning involved in its development. The next step is and characterising the global – and regional therefore to accumulate more data on these – dimensions of the project. actors – in this case, the public agency spear- heading the project, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), but Smart cities as infrastructure also the myriad of technology companies, Projects that are branded as smart city initia- utilities and real-estate developers involved. tives can be very diverse in nature and in Again, a monitoring of the economic press scale, but they usually share the common was valuable for this endeavour, but key trait of being heavily publicised and aggres- information was also found in these compa- sively promoted by their instigators. It assu- nies’ annual reports and filings. Lastly, these redly has to do with the considerable levels data were also complemented by in-depth of investment that public authorities and interviews carried out with six executives corporate interests pour into such projects, from the BCDA, the agency in charge of but beyond that, Wiig (2015) summarises the developing NCC. More generally, this situation well when he posits that ‘smart city research built upon extensive fieldwork efforts are best understood as examples of (approximately 12 months