Configuring the Case of the Quayside Project

This chapter develops an assemblage approach to the Quayside project and process. In the first section, I chart the “real space” for this project. For the second section, I take a detour through assemblage theory and review some Canadian studies of the project. The third section delves into the shift from the “intelligent communities” movement to the “smart city,” the history of Waterfront Toronto, the origin of Sidewalk Labs and their project vision. The fourth section opens a toolbox for journalism discourse analysis with a discussion of journalists as producers of discourse with some agency, their traditional method of interpretation and reporting, and other key discursive elements. To finish unpacking this toolbox, I turn to a discussion of primary and secondary definers, the tradition of frame analysis, and quality journalism’s overlap with academic discourse and policy debates. The final section reflects on analyzing mediatized controversy.