Smart cities and the politics of urban data – Kitchin, Lauriault, McArdle
– “…these new systems lead to the discontinuation of analogue alternatives, meaning that if they fail there are no alternatives until the system is fixed/rebooted.” Certainly in early implementation, there are bound to be glitches, failures and hacks on new “smart” systems. Should we leave a skeleton of older analogue systems to default back to when/if this happens? How much of the prior infrastructure should we leave behind as a failsafe, and for how long?
– “Reducing the city to a collection of facts decontextualizes it from its history, its political economy, the wider set of social, economic and environmental relations that frame its development and its interconnections and interdependencies that stretch out over space and time.” Can the same not be said for the people living in the cities? Reducing people down to a collection of statistics diminishes their expression, culture and individualism. If the consequences of corporate interests mean that cities are reduced to facts and citizens are represented by statistics in the name of efficiency and market growth, what kind of societal loss will we meet?
– “Dashboards facilitate the illusion that it is possible to ‘picture the totality of the urban domain’, to translate the messiness and complexities of cities into rational, detailed, systematic, ordered forms of knowledge.” They also have a hierarchy. Information can be highlighted or hidden from the public/figureheads depending on what the person/group presenting the information wants shown. It can be that a viewer is overwhelmed with information, and therefore does not see a statistic hidden in plain sight. Will municipalities claim transparency while burying unpleasant information in more positive material?
Digital Infrastructure of Withness: Constructing a Speculative City – Gabrys
– ” The city also never sleeps, as it efficiently and automatically activates, restocks, recharges, and recycles during the night.” Why, exactly, does the city need to rest and recharge at all? Can a smart city, made up of machines not be continuously working?
– “Those that can speak to it, in its language, stand a better chance of counting and being taken into account as a relevant node in its networks. Those who do not may find they cannot get a foothold in the world the smart city has made and possessed.” What happens to those who either cannot or will not accept and join a “smart” society? Do they get left behind? Is the population eased into a new, smart lifestyle or forced into it?