Smart Technologies of Dispossession: an ethnography of indigenous life in an environmental utopia in the Philippines

Building smart cities is one of many development plans initiated by various governments to counter the effects ofclimate change. Smart cities are well-planned and sustainable places that depend on smart technologies to createinfrastructures.

Solar-powered buildings, efficient public transportation with less carbon footprints, and advancedmapping instruments are smart technologies that define the design of smart cities.The vast literature about smart technologies shows a celebratory tone about these new instruments to deal withclimate change.

However, scholars raise concerns about how they could fail to deliver these promises and enablesocial exclusions.Using ethnographic research design, this project will explore how the creation of a new smart city in thePhilippines impacts the lives of the Aeta indigenous community.

It will highlight how the construction of ClarkGreen City (CGC) uses technologies and relations that dispossess Aeta communities from their land.

Theresearch will examine mapping instruments (i.e., drones, satellites, and Geographic Information System) assmart technologies that create CGC into a smart city where the Aeta people are excluded.The study aims to contribute to debates about how smart cities and smart technologies could become tools ofdispossession.

In so doing, the project will provide new knowledge that may be used to improve the developmentof green infrastructures without compromising the welfare of underprivileged members of society.