Abstract (English)
Smart City concepts have increasingly been connected with large scale urban development projects in cities around the world. While promising a new way of urban life, questions are raised if their implementation keeps up with the promises. At the same time, the realization of large development projects often aims to facilitate foreign investments in a city and is thus influenced by processes prone to financialization and entrepreneurial urbanism. This study is set to explore the intersection of smart city development, real estate, and financialization It examines how smart city initiatives, designed to promote urban innovation and economic growth, are intertwined with financial practices, using New Songdo City in South Korea as a case study. The project is characterized by significant private sector involvement, particularly from real estate developers and multinational tech companies like Cisco, which provide smart infrastructure and data services. The study highlights how financialization, through mechanisms like land speculation and international investment incentives, drives urban development, often prioritizing profit over local needs. Furthermore, the found evidence suggests that the implemented smart city appliances do function as profit-generating assets for the technology-firms involved. Thus, the study concludes that the smart city model of New Songdo City serves more as a speculative marketing tool to attract investment rather than a sustainable urban solution that improves residents' quality of life.