“Being first comes naturally”: The smart city and progressive urbanism in Australia

This chapter focusses on the City of Adelaide to analyze smart city developments in Australia. A midsized city that experienced declining economic fortunes and modest population growth in the late-20th century, Adelaide sought to transform its economy through “smart” infrastructure investment and partnership deals. The Adelaide case study illuminates the technological, economic, and governance contexts in which smart city policy is formulated and operationalized in Australia. While the state government of South Australia has long shared Adelaide’s vision—the city is a dominant economic player in this highly urbanized state—smart urbanism in Australia has unfolded in a setting where national governments have rarely taken an interest in urban policy. Adelaide is also an intriguing example of corporate storytelling, in constructing a narrative of its smart city credentials, designed to attract public and private investment, and build on a historical record of innovation and progressive governance for which the city and state of South Australia are known. The mobilization of Adelaide’s past to anchor and articulate its future, the chapter argues, demonstrates the importance of identifying continuities rather than ruptures when analyzing the technological transformation of cities.