Abstract

In recent years, an experimental and participatory grammar has been added to smart city projects around the world but it is still unclear how these notions are being translated and operationalised in practice. In this chapter, we examine the case of ‘Shared Streets for a Low-Carbon District’, an urban experiment that sought to reduce carbon emissions and promote more sustainable habits in a neighbourhood of Santiago de Chile through urban tactics and participatory sensing. We problematise the emerging nature of this experiment by examining its actual capacities to influence political decisions and configure certain forms of participation and publics. We show that despite the strategies deployed by those responsible for the project to turn the corporate concept of smart city to a more citizen-driven version, in practice a type of ecological awareness and participation was previously installed, while others unexpected situations were made invisible. Based on recent works on the conceptual character of the idiot, we characterise these situations of recalcitrance and overflown as ‘idiotic’ manifestations and argue that it is necessary to acknowledge them as sites of re-composition to make truly experimental interventions in smart city initiatives.