Situated Smartness

Communitas as a Framework for Aligned, Civic, and Speculative Infrastructures

Abstract

Under the guise of technological progress, smart city frameworks render themselves increasingly inadequate in addressing communal needs as they so-often rely on extractive techniques of surveillance capitalism. Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life (1947) by Percival and Paul Goodman offers a critique of consumerist society and proposes a form of visionary, techno-socialist planning principles. Juxtaposed with contemporary critiques of smart urbanism—particularly its emphasis on efficiency, data-driven governance, and technological optimization at the expense of public space—Communitas offers a valuable perspective on participatory planning. Smart systems have often emerged from the well-known Silicon Valley imaginary, where scalability, control, and productivity dominate. A critical-propositional framework is introduced and focuses on addressing two dimensions of future urbanism: energy infrastructure and public participation. The article cites Taiwanese digital governance as an example to synergize technological innovation and democratic planning in the development of more just urban futures.