As the high-tech sector has boomed globally, the term ‘Silicon Valley’ has been exported to describe cities across the world such as, Shenzhen, Accra, Tel Aviv, Skolkovo, Bengaluru and more. Silicon Valley is no longer just a place in California; it signifies a particular technological utopianism where technology looms large as the ultimate solution to social problems. This course asks the question: how does technology shape the contemporary city? And how do cities shape technology? The course will address this by examining high-tech, digital platforms and information technology, paying close attention to capital, labor, and spatial-material relations crucial to shaping tech-cities across the Global South and North. We will consider cases of Smart Cities such as Seoul, high-tech hubs such as San Francisco, ‘maker’ cities such as Taipei, big data and coding cities such as Bangalore, as well as special economic zones and tech corridors. We will address how such spaces emerge as ‘spaces of exception’ with financial and state concessions. We will also address the ways in which they affect ecological crises of mineral extraction, waste disposal (particularly e-waste) and environmental injustice as well as the entwined social consequences of urban inequality, financialization and dispossession. The course will draw on readings from urban studies, geography and science and technology studies and include field trips to high-tech zones and maker spaces in the NYC area