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In:Developing New Identities in Social Conflicts: Constructivist perspectives
Edited by Esperanza Morales-López and Alan Floyd
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 71] 2017
► pp. 203–226

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Chapter 10
Posthumanism and the city

The construction of identity and ideological conflict in discourses regarding the new technological self

Published online: 26 July 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.71.10mol
Abstract
In this paper, I discuss the underlying ideological conflict behind the concept of the “Smart City.” Sometimes naively praised and embraced as a great technological achievement, the Smart City is a very controversial concept, particularly if we interpret it within the context of posthumanist thinking, which discusses the ways in which technology may forever alter our daily lives, our bodies, our minds and, in the end, the whole identity of human beings.
Within the theoretical and analytical framework the constructivist rhetoric offers, my main goal in the paper will be a reflection on the discursive setting of both posthumanism and the Smart City, along with the analysis of a corpus of political discourses describing the “smart” concept regarding the city of Barcelona.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background: Constructivist rhetoric
  • 3.Transhumanism and posthumanism: Definitions and ideological conflict
    • 3.1Human identity: Man’s doing against Mother Nature
    • 3.2The abyss between mind and body
    • 3.3Power and technological inequality
  • 4.Posthumanism and the concept of “Smart City”
  • 5.Barcelona, a Smart City?
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
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