Austin Zwick
Biographic Data
| ID | 3893732 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Austin Zwick |
| GIVEN NAMES | Austin |
| FAMILY NAME | Zwick |
| SIGNATURE | ZWICK A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Syracuse University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3727-055X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 64 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Why smart city megaprojects failed
Smart city megaprojects routinely fall short of the utopian visions promoted by their creators, yet the failure of these projects has not been systematically compared across cases or grounded in a shared analytical framework. This paper addresses that gap by examining ten smart city new-town projects from around the world, including Songdo, NEOM, Sidewalk Toronto, Masdar City, and others, at various stages of development, construction, suspension…
The inequities of being smart
To understand whether smart city technology adoption replicates historic patterns of uneven development on both global and local levels, we examine if a city's relative wealth explains differences in the types of smart city technologies adopted. To answer our research questions, we created a novel dataset of 127 cities worldwide, analyzing planning documents and secondary sources. We grouped 70 different smart city policy options into six broad c…
From pretextual planning to prezoning
Discretionary planning systems have long structured urban development in North American cities by prioritizing negotiated outcomes over predictable, rule-based governance. Such systems often facilitate pretextual planning , in which zoning regulations function as instruments of negotiation rather than regulation, enabling municipalities to extract public benefits through exemptions from floor space ratios, parking minimums, or height limits. This…
Examining the Smart City Generational Model
Cohen's Smart City Generational model has been the basis of understanding for the evolution of the Smart Cities movement. However, how does this model align with practitioners’ conceptualization of the term? Our research focuses on Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge (SCC). Through 14 primary interviews and 20 finalist applications, this research reveals that practitioners overwhelmingly understand Smart City building as a government-dri…
Moving ideas? The news media’s impact on ridehailing regulation in Canadian cities
Over the last 5 years, regulating ridehailing has risen to the top of the agenda in nearly every major city. There is an established academic literature that speaks to how traditional news media shapes and informs the regulatory agenda for municipalities. Building off this literature, we investigate the role that traditional news media played in shaping the debate about regulating ridehailing in Canadian cities. After searching and analyzing the …
Universities and urban social structure
Anchor institutions, including universities, are often instrumentalized to spur revitalization in shrinking or declining cities. Yet universities’ implications for the social geographies of legacy cities remain understudied. We examine links between universities and gentrification, alongside “studentification” resulting from the concentration of students and “youthification” due to the concentration of young adults, in five legacy city Metropolit…
Public engagement in smart city development
Quality of life is often touted as the main benefit of building smart cities. This, however, raises questions about the extent to which the public is engaged as part of the “smart” development process, particularly given the significant financial investments often required to meaningfully design smart city projects. To better understand approaches to public engagement in the context of smart city development, we draw upon three selected finalists…
Fracking and Value Capture in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area
The Marcellus Shale play lies below Northern Appalachia. Pittsburgh is unique in that it is surrounded by fracking on all sides. This research note investigates how much this metropolitan statistical area is capturing value from this industry by (1) mapping the locations where fracking is occurring, (2) investigating which companies are responsible for the drilling, and (3) reporting how many jobs the industry is providing. The hope is that other…
Comparison of the Coal and Fracking Industries in Northern Appalachia
This article compares and contrasts the economic operations of the coal industry and the fracking industry in Northern Appalachia. Both of these fossil fuel industries brought a boom of employment to the region, but the implications for the region differ. For example, the coal industry built communities around it based off multi-generational employment whereas fracking is reliant on short-term fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) work arrangements. This article…
Patterns of Local Policy Disruption
Since its inception in 2009, Uber has grown into a technology behemoth, with operations in over 70 countries and 500 cities around the world. Along the way, it has successfully forced regulatory upheaval in hundreds of local taxi markets controlled by municipal authorities. In this sense, Uber is not only a market disruptor, but also a policy disruptor. This paper examines the nature of such policy disruption at the local level by reviewing regul…
Good or bad? Ridesharing's impact on Canadian cities
Ridesharing's phenomenal growth has been fueled by a combination of efficiency gains through technological innovation and disregard for current taxi regulations. The end effect has been the generation of significant consumer surplus, but at what social cost? This dialogue piece debates whether ridesharing services have been good or bad for Canadian cities and then reviews current regulatory status in Toronto and Vancouver
Welcome to the Gig Economy
Welcome to the Gig Economy
Universities and urban social structure
Anchor institutions, including universities, are often instrumentalized to spur revitalization in shrinking or declining cities. Yet universities’ implications for the social geographies of legacy cities remain understudied. We examine links between universities and gentrification, alongside “studentification” resulting from the concentration of students and “youthification” due to the concentration of young adults, in five legacy city Metropolit…
Public engagement in smart city development
Quality of life is often touted as the main benefit of building smart cities. This, however, raises questions about the extent to which the public is engaged as part of the “smart” development process, particularly given the significant financial investments often required to meaningfully design smart city projects. To better understand approaches to public engagement in the context of smart city development, we draw upon three selected finalists…
Patterns of Local Policy Disruption
Since its inception in 2009, Uber has grown into a technology behemoth, with operations in over 70 countries and 500 cities around the world. Along the way, it has successfully forced regulatory upheaval in hundreds of local taxi markets controlled by municipal authorities. In this sense, Uber is not only a market disruptor, but also a policy disruptor. This paper examines the nature of such policy disruption at the local level by reviewing regul…
Good or bad? Ridesharing's impact on Canadian cities
Ridesharing's phenomenal growth has been fueled by a combination of efficiency gains through technological innovation and disregard for current taxi regulations. The end effect has been the generation of significant consumer surplus, but at what social cost? This dialogue piece debates whether ridesharing services have been good or bad for Canadian cities and then reviews current regulatory status in Toronto and Vancouver
Moving ideas? The news media’s impact on ridehailing regulation in Canadian cities
Over the last 5 years, regulating ridehailing has risen to the top of the agenda in nearly every major city. There is an established academic literature that speaks to how traditional news media shapes and informs the regulatory agenda for municipalities. Building off this literature, we investigate the role that traditional news media played in shaping the debate about regulating ridehailing in Canadian cities. After searching and analyzing the …
Welcome to the Gig Economy
Fracking and Value Capture in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area
The Marcellus Shale play lies below Northern Appalachia. Pittsburgh is unique in that it is surrounded by fracking on all sides. This research note investigates how much this metropolitan statistical area is capturing value from this industry by (1) mapping the locations where fracking is occurring, (2) investigating which companies are responsible for the drilling, and (3) reporting how many jobs the industry is providing. The hope is that other…
Comparison of the Coal and Fracking Industries in Northern Appalachia
This article compares and contrasts the economic operations of the coal industry and the fracking industry in Northern Appalachia. Both of these fossil fuel industries brought a boom of employment to the region, but the implications for the region differ. For example, the coal industry built communities around it based off multi-generational employment whereas fracking is reliant on short-term fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) work arrangements. This article…
Patterns of Local Policy Disruption
Since its inception in 2009, Uber has grown into a technology behemoth, with operations in over 70 countries and 500 cities around the world. Along the way, it has successfully forced regulatory upheaval in hundreds of local taxi markets controlled by municipal authorities. In this sense, Uber is not only a market disruptor, but also a policy disruptor. This paper examines the nature of such policy disruption at the local level by reviewing regul…
Good or bad? Ridesharing's impact on Canadian cities
Ridesharing's phenomenal growth has been fueled by a combination of efficiency gains through technological innovation and disregard for current taxi regulations. The end effect has been the generation of significant consumer surplus, but at what social cost? This dialogue piece debates whether ridesharing services have been good or bad for Canadian cities and then reviews current regulatory status in Toronto and Vancouver
Public engagement in smart city development
Quality of life is often touted as the main benefit of building smart cities. This, however, raises questions about the extent to which the public is engaged as part of the “smart” development process, particularly given the significant financial investments often required to meaningfully design smart city projects. To better understand approaches to public engagement in the context of smart city development, we draw upon three selected finalists…
Universities and urban social structure
Anchor institutions, including universities, are often instrumentalized to spur revitalization in shrinking or declining cities. Yet universities’ implications for the social geographies of legacy cities remain understudied. We examine links between universities and gentrification, alongside “studentification” resulting from the concentration of students and “youthification” due to the concentration of young adults, in five legacy city Metropolit…
Moving ideas? The news media’s impact on ridehailing regulation in Canadian cities
Over the last 5 years, regulating ridehailing has risen to the top of the agenda in nearly every major city. There is an established academic literature that speaks to how traditional news media shapes and informs the regulatory agenda for municipalities. Building off this literature, we investigate the role that traditional news media played in shaping the debate about regulating ridehailing in Canadian cities. After searching and analyzing the …
Examining the Smart City Generational Model
Cohen's Smart City Generational model has been the basis of understanding for the evolution of the Smart Cities movement. However, how does this model align with practitioners’ conceptualization of the term? Our research focuses on Infrastructure Canada's Smart City Challenge (SCC). Through 14 primary interviews and 20 finalist applications, this research reveals that practitioners overwhelmingly understand Smart City building as a government-dri…
Why smart city megaprojects failed
Smart city megaprojects routinely fall short of the utopian visions promoted by their creators, yet the failure of these projects has not been systematically compared across cases or grounded in a shared analytical framework. This paper addresses that gap by examining ten smart city new-town projects from around the world, including Songdo, NEOM, Sidewalk Toronto, Masdar City, and others, at various stages of development, construction, suspension…
The inequities of being smart
To understand whether smart city technology adoption replicates historic patterns of uneven development on both global and local levels, we examine if a city's relative wealth explains differences in the types of smart city technologies adopted. To answer our research questions, we created a novel dataset of 127 cities worldwide, analyzing planning documents and secondary sources. We grouped 70 different smart city policy options into six broad c…
From pretextual planning to prezoning
Discretionary planning systems have long structured urban development in North American cities by prioritizing negotiated outcomes over predictable, rule-based governance. Such systems often facilitate pretextual planning , in which zoning regulations function as instruments of negotiation rather than regulation, enabling municipalities to extract public benefits through exemptions from floor space ratios, parking minimums, or height limits. This…
Business (7 works) · Political science (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Engineering (4 works) · Geography (4 works) · Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Public Administration (4 works) · Sharing Economy and Platforms (4 works) · Smart Cities and Technologies (4 works)