Speakers | Alan Smart

Alan Smart (PhD, U of Toronto, 1986) has conducted research on urban issues, housing, foreign investment, social change, food safety, zoonotic diseases, and agriculture in Hong Kong, China, and Canada. He is author of “Making Room: Squatter Clearance in Hong Kong” (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1992) “Petty capitalists and globalization” (co-edited with Josephine Smart, SUNY Press, 2005), “The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, fires and colonial rule in Hong Kong, 1950–1963” (Hong Kong University Press, 2006), “Posthumanism: Anthropological Insights (co-authored with Josephine Smart U Toronto Press, 2017) and numerous articles in journals and edited volumes. Current research is focusing on urban informality and development policy.

In Urban China Forum 2019, Professor Smart will discuss the topic of Smart City in China: Big Data-driven Urban Governance and Their Social Consequences. The concept of a smart city, its multiple applications in planning and practice in China, and its impact on society.

For more information about Professor Alan Smart, visit his personal page at the University of Calgary.