Theme Leader: Dr Jack Palmer (https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/sociology/staff/2688/dr-jack-palmer)

This section explores how digital platforms, artificial intelligence and smart-city technologies are transforming urban life in the twenty-first century. These student projects examine the ways in which data-driven systems increasingly shape mobility, housing, work, security and the provision of public services, while projecting powerful, future-oriented visions of efficiency and connectivity. This selection of student projects invites viewers to reflect on the social, political and ethical implications of these emerging urban futures, situating contemporary smart-city imaginaries within longer histories of technological innovation and optimisation. Together, they ask what kinds of cities are being imagined, who benefits from these transformations, and what alternative urban futures might still be possible.