Against smartness: the sociological and institutional critique of smart society

Authors

  • Melissa Sessa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/s76s-z113

Keywords:

Smart society, critique, smartness

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the critique of smartness. Scholarly dicta over the years have developed lines of critique of smartness that can be summarised in the strands presented in this paper: technological, institutional, and social. Leaving the technological critique in the background, the work presented here focuses on the institutional and social critiques. The aim is thus to draw attention to how the concept of smartness, although seen by many as a panacea for all ills, is not free from criticism. The uncritical assumption of this conceptual phenomenon runs the risk of disconnecting the concept of a smart society from society itself.

Author Biography

Melissa Sessa

Lavora presso l’Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica (IRPI) del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche ed è una docente a contratto di Sociologia del turismo presso l’Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma.

Downloads

Published

2024-10-24

How to Cite

Sessa, M. (2024). Against smartness: the sociological and institutional critique of smart society. The Lab’s Quarterly, 28(2), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.13131/unipi/s76s-z113

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 2 (2026): The Lab's Quarterly 2026 XXVIII 2

Section

Article

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Melissa Sessa

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The author(s) authorise The Lab’s Quarterly to publish their articles online – making it available to the public through the journal’s website and its social media channels – and to use it under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence (including reproduction, elaboration and juxtaposition) for these purposes. The author(s) retain copyrights but agree not to translate or publish it in other journals until at least 18 months after its publication in this journal.