Concerns have been raised regarding smart city innovatons leading to, or consolidatng, technocratic urban governance and the tokenizaton of citzens. However, less research has explored how we make sense of ongoing appropriaton of the resources, skills, and expertise of corporate smart cites and what this means for future cites. In this paper, we examine the summoning of political subjectivity through the practices of retrofitting, repurposing, and reinvigoratng. We consider them as “civic infrastructure" to sensitize the infrastructural acts and conventons that are assembled for exploring inclusive and participatory ways of shaping urban futures. These practices, illustrated by examples in Adelaide, Dublin, and Boston, focus on capabilites not only to write code, access data or design prototype, but also to devise diverse sociotechnical arrangements and power relatons to disobey, queston, and dissent from technocratic visions and practices. The paper concludes by suggesting further examinaton of the summoning of political subjectivity from within established institutons to widen dissent and appropriaton of the corporate smart city.