Actually-existing Smart Dublin: Exploring smart city development in history and context

Initial empirical research concerning the development of smart urbanism focused largely on smart city rhetoric, the marketing materials of companies promoting smart city products and services, and the policy and visioning documents of lobbying bodies and city administrations. This chapter examines how the smart city idea has been enacted through a set of smart city initiatives and brought into common discourse in the Dublin city region through the Smart Dublin programme. It charts how Dublin has moved from an 'accidental smart city' to an articulated vision with its own projects. So successful has this re-articulation been that Dublin was one of six shortlisted finalists for smart city of the year at the Smart City Expo and World Congress 2017. A key factor in the revival of Dublin's fortunes was the adoption of entrepreneurial urbanism to stimulate property development and attract service-based foreign direct investment.