Smart Cities, Globalization, And Social Inequalities - Article Example

Smart Cities, Globalization, And Social Inequalities Introduction In the whole world, some of the developing cities have becomecreative due to increasing encouraging creativity and investment meanwhile boosting urban growth and the living standards of its inhabitants. Some cities in the world are working to ascertain the innovative strengths and factors that define their attracting attention and demand (Young,2014). In this article, I am going to look at one progressive modern city known as Austin. It has a unique economy that whose creative products include traditional goods and services in media, music and art sectors (Enbysk, 2014). Other cities are also not exceptional, they are making notable growth in this area in a digital slideshow. Thesis statement: Current media technologies have started to emerge and incorporate themselves in urban centers leading to development of “smart cities” thus leading to creation of market opportunities and efficiency in urban flows. However, social inequalities and digital divides have also begun to emerge. Focusing on Austin, we are going to tackle several creative sectors which include technology and music. Austin is a developing city geared for success. It offers a sight into diverse economy and complex innovative ecosystems. We are also going to examine Austin developing to position itself for future growth or whether their recent achievements seem not to be long lasting(Young, 2014). The 2,750-seat Moody Theatre in downtown Austin, Texas is the new home of Austin city extremes, the show that in its 1974 featured Mr Nelson and the longest- running music series in the history of television(Lentz et al, 2012). Musician willie Nelson performed a sold-out show at the same arena to mark the end of 2014. The new fashionable venue shows how far the TV programme and the city itself has evolved over the last four decades. The leaders’ in Austin have known that music is a significant characteristic of their city and due to this they have improved their efforts in shaping the city’s growth and prosperity. “Music is the spice in the chili that makes it taste so good”, says Austin’s mayor from 2003 to 2009 and a big music fan. Will Wynn once stated that music is very vital in life. Austin has more than 200 live music arenas and this boosts the tourism department (Lentz et al, 2012).Music is just one of the 50,000 arts-related jobs in Austin. The other areas include gaming, film and visual arts. During the 2008 recession many cities were affected but Austin continues to add jobs and population. Creative industries in Austin have an advantage from the expanding population job base branching from technology sector. Austin technology started developing when the city attracted two tech based consortia, the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation and SEMATECH (Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology). Austin also offers financial incentives such as subsided leases and local university support (Lentz etal, 2012). Mr. Wynn once said companies like IBM, Texas Instruments, Motorola and Advanced Micro Devices ultimately put Austin on the map into a small group of rising intellectual cities and it keeps on rising. Capital and technology have been infused in the city and this has helped in attracting other investments and other upcoming businesses such as the prominent players of Samsung and Apple. This has also led to emergence and growth of other research and development (R&D) activity along with other start-ups (Enbysk, 2014). This was aided by the upcoming of the young, educated and the intellectual tech minds which availed plenty creativity and hence Mr Wynn notes that the technologists where not the one who came up with the image but it was in existence already. The first Southwest Festival (SXSW) started in 1987 immediately when the same time when Austin landed SEMATECH. It was earlier termed as a music gathering point in a sleepy university and was thence transformed to a conference-cum-festival which incorporated technology, film as well as music. In the year 2014, over three hundred and seventy attended the festival conference and over US$315m were collected for boosting the economy of the city according to the report by the Greyhill advisors consultancy. This events is also termed to be a source of strong strength in terms of the city’s status as it intersects music, art as well as digital technology (Lentz et al, (2012). Between the years 2000 and 2002, immediately after the 1990’s dotcom bubble burst, more than twenty five thousand jobs in the technology sector where lost and the city thereafter reacted by applying aggressive forces in order to drive its economy to cover the deficit. Mr Wynn who was a council in 2002 and an elected mayor in 2003 oversaw a task-force on the economy for the purpose of recommending as well as implementing changes. Initiatives like the "business-friendly" incorporated expedition of restrictions impacted on the small businesses as well as working along with the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce to come up with programs and incentives that were aimed at attracting youth employment and other jobless folks in the city (Jayasanker, 2008). The cultural vitality of the city was the most visible and emphasized facet of that task-force that measured its creative economy in terms of the investments in initiatives related to art such as music for the vision of developing the economy. Culture was also made a fundamental part in setting the direction of the city as well as making decisions on the policies to be adapted by the citizens. The image of the city was disproportionately music and hence it was vital to anticipate the significance of the vitality in culture during the designing of the way forward. Among the new projections of the city was adopting a slogan, "Keep Austin Weird". This thereafter became the city’s motto for the citizens to be committed to creativity and a reminder that the growth in urbanization should keep the assets of culture as they modelled the appeal and identity of Austin (Ark, 2013). As the growth in expansion of the city and the industrial sector is anticipated over time in the Generica of the States, through God Austin will emerge as a unique city in America. The creative industries in the city have led to the boom in employment opportunities covering a percentage of over 25% between 2005 and 2014. The rise of the digital media has also reflected the continued growth in the trends of the city such as almost US$1bn in the industry of gaming (Enbysk, 2014). The music industry in Austin continues to be strong taking a leading top position forming a magnet that has attracted small businesses along with the much-desires 24-34 year old demographic. The real-estate market of Austin has flourished and driven up the prices of homes with an evidence of the 37-storey W Hotel adjacent to the Theatre, the brand new 34-storey JW Marriott, the tallest residential building in Texas the 56-storey Austonian and the expectant 50-storey Fairmont Hotel in 2016 (Lentz et al, 2012). The Waller Creek project on the edge of the downtown area aims at creating an expansive urban parking as well as other related developments that add to the vitality of the food culture with evident awards won by chefs by multiple counts of the likes of James Beard as well as legion of trucks that serve food with diverse menus extending beyond the signature of the city Tex-Mex as well as barbeque offerings. In spite of the voter rejection of the US$600m bond in financing a new light-rail system, the future of Austin will be modeled by skills of the residents in the management of the severe congestion in the highways as well as the rising in the cost of living along with other challenges that come with the rapid growth. The city continues to be proud of the presence of the leaders that works in hand with the growing stream of the young, intelligent and educated newcomers that are attracted by the musical vibe in the city of Austin that add to its mix in the creativity (Jayasanker, 2008). The expansion of this city has been a model for other cities wishing to become high-tech centers. However, this boom has left the residents who are poor behind such as African American or rather Latin (Cragg, 2011).The local and the federal have impacted efforts to raise the incomes of the minority as well as how they access technology. References Ark, T. (2013). Smart Cities: Austin. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/ Cragg, W. (2011). Ethics Codes, Corporations, and the Challenge of Globalization: Edward Elgar Publishing - Business & Economics. Enbysk, L. (2014). Outlook for smart cities 2014 and beyond: economic momentum, urban living trends and more .Retrieved from: http://smartcitiescouncil.com/article/outlook-smart-cities-2014-and-beyond-economic-momentum-urban-living-trends-and-more Jayasanker, L. (2008).Sameness in Diversity: Food Culture and Globalization in the San Francisco Bay Area and America, 1965—2005 Lentz, R. et al. (2012). Inequity in the Technopolis: Race, Class, Gender, and the Digital Divide in Austin. University of Texas Press: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/strine#sthash.Kuu4DCvn.dpuf on_innovation/2013/03/smart_cities_austin.html Young, G. (2014).Gendering Globalization on the Ground: The Limits of Feminized Work for Mexican Women’s Empowerment: Routledge, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS. Read More