Against the production of smart urban space for growth: Convivializing and democratizing EU regional development funding

Philipp Nicolas Lutz

doi:10.14512/tatup.7216

Authors

Philipp N. Lutz Institute for Spatial and Social-Ecological Transformations, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna (AT) https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1562-7320 philipp.nicolas.lutz@wu.ac.at

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14512/tatup.7216

Keywords:

degrowth, production of space, smart city, convivial technology, commons-public partnerships

Abstract

The article criticizes the way the EU guides regional development through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Based on David Harvey’s theory of the production of space (2014), it formulates several criticisms: ERDF support for smart urbanism prioritizes private profit and financialization and approaches ecological sustainability from a techno-optimistic perspective. At the same time, smart urbanism ignores the geopolitical ramifications of extractivism and ecologically unequal exchange that underpin it. The article also presents the contours of a degrowth-compatible ERDF: convivial technology as a sociotechnical guiding principle and commons-public partnerships as organizational innovation. Such an approach can help EU regions become more equitable, ecological, and democratic.

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