Innovandia’s biggest city, Esterbridge, is both the financial centre and the centre of innovation. The largest science innovation park, housing numerous start-ups and several multional companies, is based there around a National AI Research Institute. This innovation dynamic has spurred a lucrative market for technology and telecommunications companies (both local and multinationals) for developing digital and networked solutions, and with this, a growing ability to capture, aggregate and process an ever-greater volume and variety of data. In addition, the proliferation of personal devices capable of collecting and transmitting information to the internet and to databases has linked most Innovandians to the growing ‘Internet of Things (IoT)’ – a massive web of people, data, things and processes interconnected via a dynamic, global digital infrastructure. However, the growing population, housing shortages, relative ghetto-isation of some ethnicities and migrant groups within the city, pressures on natural resources, pollution, and claims of rising rates of violence and crime have led to a rise in populism at both ends of the political spectrum and within one faction of the Democratic party.