Burcu Baykurt
Biographic Data
| ID | 384548 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Burcu Baykurt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Burcu |
| FAMILY NAME | Baykurt |
| SIGNATURE | BAYKURT B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1690-4237 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Mainstreaming Decolonial Perspectives in Media and Communication
Over the past two decades, there have been many calls and efforts to decolonize and de-westernize research in media and communication (Aouragh & Chakravartty 2016; Couldry & Mejias 2019; Ricaurte 2019). While these efforts have generated valuable academic centers, community-driven projects, and South-to-South networks (e.g., CARGC, FemLab, Tierra Comun), the field is still dominated by (implicit) universalist perspectives. Often the Anglo-America…
Gov-tech as capture
This paper examines the U.S. ‘gov-tech' market, focusing on firms that partner with government agencies to redesign digital public infrastructures. Through interviews with founders and chief technology officers of gov-tech companies, it develops ‘capture’ as a framework for analyzing how these firms commodify public data, redefine state capacity, and foster dependencies through computational systems. The study identifies three mechanisms of captu…
Google urbanism 2010–2020
This article examines Google’s political-economic influence in the emerging ‘digital growth machine’ through two urban-tech initiatives, Fiber and Sidewalk Labs. The findings highlight the company’s dual role as both a platform and an infrastructure, its capacity for collaboration with local governments and its iterative, experimental use of urban environments. It argues that Google’s urban-tech power in cities is neither fixed nor easily defined…
Google, a major stakeholder in local governance
Despite its pervasive presence in urban life, Google has received comparatively little scholarly attention within urban studies, especially relative to other platform companies. This special issue addresses that gap by examining Google’s evolving role in local governance. We argue that Google should be understood as an urban firm —an actor whose influence emerges not from a unified strategy but from a patchwork of experiments, negotiations, and c…
Making up the predictable border
This article examines how claims to predictable borders via data science techniques are crafted in bureaucratic institutions. Through a case study of testing algorithmic systems at a transnational agency, we examine how humanitarian organizations reconcile the risks of predictive technologies with the benefits they claim to receive. Drawing on a content analysis of policy documents and interviews with humanitarian technologists, we identify three…
Algorithmic accountability in U.S. cities
This article examines how algorithmic accountability is translated into action at the municipal level in the United States. Based on a review of task forces, ordinances, and policy toolkits from New York City and Seattle, I demonstrate the ways municipalities and local publics operationalize abstract notions of accountability. Municipal interventions often prioritize revealing computational tools (transparency) and their effects on people (impact…
From circulating liberalism to tech nationalism
The global internet was originally shoe-horned into making a U.S.-led international order in the post-Cold War. Soft power enthusiasts and the early architects of the global internet worked closely to turn global connectivity into a civilizing mission. Around the 2010s, the State Department embraced ‘internet freedom’ as a soft power strategy when U.S. dominance was challenged by global and regional counter-hegemons. I argue that the ‘tech Cold W…
What smartness does in the smart city
This article examines what smartness does on the ground by examining how its anticipatory media visions have been interpreted and acted on in policy decisions and local implementations since the early 2000s. Using a comparative-historical analysis that draws on fieldwork in aspiring smart cities in the United States and Europe, we argue that the visions of smartness are neither singular nor fixed across time and space. Instead, the role of smartn…
How does a culture of health change? Lessons from the war on cigarettes
Google urbanism 2010–2020
This article examines Google’s political-economic influence in the emerging ‘digital growth machine’ through two urban-tech initiatives, Fiber and Sidewalk Labs. The findings highlight the company’s dual role as both a platform and an infrastructure, its capacity for collaboration with local governments and its iterative, experimental use of urban environments. It argues that Google’s urban-tech power in cities is neither fixed nor easily defined…
How does a culture of health change? Lessons from the war on cigarettes
How does a culture of health change? Lessons from the war on cigarettes
What smartness does in the smart city
This article examines what smartness does on the ground by examining how its anticipatory media visions have been interpreted and acted on in policy decisions and local implementations since the early 2000s. Using a comparative-historical analysis that draws on fieldwork in aspiring smart cities in the United States and Europe, we argue that the visions of smartness are neither singular nor fixed across time and space. Instead, the role of smartn…
Algorithmic accountability in U.S. cities
This article examines how algorithmic accountability is translated into action at the municipal level in the United States. Based on a review of task forces, ordinances, and policy toolkits from New York City and Seattle, I demonstrate the ways municipalities and local publics operationalize abstract notions of accountability. Municipal interventions often prioritize revealing computational tools (transparency) and their effects on people (impact…
From circulating liberalism to tech nationalism
The global internet was originally shoe-horned into making a U.S.-led international order in the post-Cold War. Soft power enthusiasts and the early architects of the global internet worked closely to turn global connectivity into a civilizing mission. Around the 2010s, the State Department embraced ‘internet freedom’ as a soft power strategy when U.S. dominance was challenged by global and regional counter-hegemons. I argue that the ‘tech Cold W…
Making up the predictable border
This article examines how claims to predictable borders via data science techniques are crafted in bureaucratic institutions. Through a case study of testing algorithmic systems at a transnational agency, we examine how humanitarian organizations reconcile the risks of predictive technologies with the benefits they claim to receive. Drawing on a content analysis of policy documents and interviews with humanitarian technologists, we identify three…
Gov-tech as capture
This paper examines the U.S. ‘gov-tech' market, focusing on firms that partner with government agencies to redesign digital public infrastructures. Through interviews with founders and chief technology officers of gov-tech companies, it develops ‘capture’ as a framework for analyzing how these firms commodify public data, redefine state capacity, and foster dependencies through computational systems. The study identifies three mechanisms of captu…
Google urbanism 2010–2020
This article examines Google’s political-economic influence in the emerging ‘digital growth machine’ through two urban-tech initiatives, Fiber and Sidewalk Labs. The findings highlight the company’s dual role as both a platform and an infrastructure, its capacity for collaboration with local governments and its iterative, experimental use of urban environments. It argues that Google’s urban-tech power in cities is neither fixed nor easily defined…
Google, a major stakeholder in local governance
Despite its pervasive presence in urban life, Google has received comparatively little scholarly attention within urban studies, especially relative to other platform companies. This special issue addresses that gap by examining Google’s evolving role in local governance. We argue that Google should be understood as an urban firm —an actor whose influence emerges not from a unified strategy but from a patchwork of experiments, negotiations, and c…
Mainstreaming Decolonial Perspectives in Media and Communication
Over the past two decades, there have been many calls and efforts to decolonize and de-westernize research in media and communication (Aouragh & Chakravartty 2016; Couldry & Mejias 2019; Ricaurte 2019). While these efforts have generated valuable academic centers, community-driven projects, and South-to-South networks (e.g., CARGC, FemLab, Tierra Comun), the field is still dominated by (implicit) universalist perspectives. Often the Anglo-America…
Political science (6 works) · Politics (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Smart Cities and Technologies (4 works) · Business (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Political economy (3 works) · Capitalism (2 works)