Smartness as Wealth

Project Title	Smartness as Wealth
Project Investigator/s at JGU	Prof. Anindita Nag (JSAA)
Funding Agency	Volkswagen Foundation
Collaborating Institution/s	Technical University, Dresden, Leuphana University, Luneburg, University of Cape Town and Concordia University, Montreal
Duration	2023-26
Project Status	Ongoing
Description	The Volkswagen Foundation has awarded this grant to Professor Anindita Nag along with four other scholars from Germany, South Africa and Canada to conduct an inter-disciplinary, four-year research project, entitled, “Smartness as Wealth,” under the Foundation’s funding program, “Perspectives on Wealth: The Re-Production of Wealth.” For the project, Professor Anindita Nag will collaborate with colleagues from Technical University, Dresden, Leuphana University, Luneburg, University of Cape Town and Concordia University, Montreal. This project will be global in scope and will analyze the implications of the promise of wealth associated with smartness as technology. It will further examine how venture capital is reshaping wealth production across the world, and how this influences the cities of the present and of the future. Here, the aim is to advance our understanding of how initiatives that are designated as “smart” can serve as a lens through which the broader planetary questions of technology, urbanism, and wealth are evolving around the world.