Metaverse Cities. Deconstructing a glossy urban dystopia

Abstract

On 29 October 2021, after almost two years of pandemic crisis, Facebook Inc., the famous multina- tional technology conglomerate, announced at the company’s annual conference, the immediate change of the corporation name to Meta Platforms Inc. The announcement marks a change of strategy of the first social network towards the construction of the ‘Metaverse’, beginning what many consider a further revolution towardsWeb3.0. However, the issue of building virtual‘worlds’ was certainly not new. Already by the end of 2021, there were at least 160 companies dedicated to the‘construction’of Metaverses. However, the change of name of an important multinational as Facebook, as well as the announcements of huge investments in this disruptive technology (software and hardware) had the effect of putting the topic of the controversial‘Metaverse’at the centre of public and academic debate.