In recent years, "smartness" has risen as a buzzword to characterise urban policy that goes beyond a one-dimensional growth agenda by addressing the multifaceted quest for sustainability, itself a much used term. Hence, it is contended that there is a new emphasis on qualitative and responsible growth. Central to this shift has been the concept of "transition" - providing the broader context and points of reference for adopting smartness in reconciling competing interests and agendas in city-regional governance.

Hence, recent discourses of smartness and smart cities now typically...

This book investigates the new urban geographies of "smart" metropolitan regionalism across the Greater Seattle area and examines the relationship between smart growth planning strategies and spaces of work, home, and mobility. The book specifically explores Seattle within the wider space-economy and multi-scaled policy regime of the Puget Sound region as a whole, 'jumping up' from questions of city politics to concerns with what the book interprets as the "intercurrence" of city-regional "ordering." These theoretical terms capture the state-progressive effort to promote smarter forms of...