Sin city to smart city, or atonement by technology: an introduction

This chapter aims at proving the reader with an overview of the opportunities, challenges, open questions, and threats, inherent in the broad and somewhat ill-defined phenomenon known as the Smart City. A few key domains are identified and discussed: mobility, health and welfare, security and policing, energy, admin-istration and politics, and education. The core of the chapter is preceded by two sections that propose a historical and cultural angle presenting the Smart City as the technology-redeemed offspring of more troublesome ancestors.