Amidst global technological changes, China's rapid development of over 1,000 "smart cities" raises urgent questions about digital governance's societal impact. This project examines these effects, employing mixed methods to understand how technology integrates into local decision-making dynamics. 

The project explores how Russia and China create and communicate alternative narratives about the Ukraine war and global alliances. These narratives, rooted in anti-Western rhetoric, are accepted, rejected, or reinterpreted by their populations due to internal divisions and changing power dynamics.