In his new book, “The Platform Economy and the Smart City: Technology and the Transformation of Urban Policy” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), Maxwell School faculty member Austin Zwick explores the intersection between urban planning and technological change.

As new innovations change the way we live and work, municipal governments are struggling to keep up with new demands to regulate novel industries and streamline service delivery. This march toward the future holds both promise and peril for local governments, asserts Zwick. He highlights the need for cities to rethink their historical approach as reactive policymakers, but rather embrace and harness innovate technologies into proactive governance. This transformation is the essence of what makes a city a “smart city,” he writes.

Zwick is an assistant teaching professor and the assistant director of the Policy Studies Program at the Maxwell School. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2018. His research focuses on technological change and the resulting social and economic transformation.