We discuss how the failed promises of smart city megaprojects around the world – really honing in on Africa and a case study of Konza City in Kenya – perfectly encapsulate the brand of colonialism propagated by consultants like McKinsey. The “visions” and “strategies” they sell as ways of achieving prosperity, progress, and prestige are based on a dual ideology of technological and developmental determinism. While these smart cities never materialize in the way their marketing brochures and thought leaders proclaim, they aren’t failures—because they were never meant to actually succeed. Read this fantastic piece of reporting by Carey Baraka in Rest of World: https://restofworld.org/2021/the-failed-promise-of-kenyas-smart-city/

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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)