Evangelists of the urban future. A decolonial critique of the smart city narrative in Santiago de Chile

The smart city (SC) is an urban planning model and image of the urban future that circulates globally. In order to broaden the scope of the SC literature, this article examines how the SC debate has played out in Chile, and specifically in Santiago, where SC initiatives are supported by a local alliance that includes segments of the government and technology companies. We analyse how the SC narrative has been performed and promoted, asking how it is portrayed, how the city is problematised and by whom. We describe the promotion of SC ideas here through the concept of evangelisation, which we see as the process of deploying narratives of the future centred upon notions of salvation and superiority. Working from a decolonial perspective, we find similarities in the way that the SC is promoted in Chile and other evangelisation processes that have been maintained for centuries in Latin America. We use this perspective to discuss SC narratives as forms of epistemic colonialism. Furthermore, drawing on participant observation at SC events held in Santiago, we discuss the disconnect between the promoters of SC policies, the people charged with implementing them, and the city dwellers who are impacted by them. We conclude by reflecting on the ways that a decolonial perspective can help scholars critically assess the SC model within the context of global policy mobilities and unequal urban power relations.