Three shades of 'urban-digital citizenship

Borders, speculation, and logistics in Cape Town

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4524992
AutoresIlia Antenucci (0000-0001-9094-0431, Center for Digital Cultures, Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organizations Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany), Federico Tomasello (0000-0002-6025-6548, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy (Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage), WZB-Berlin Social Science Centre, Germany, (International Citizenship Law Research Unit), European University Institute (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies), Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland (NCCR On-the-Move), autor correspondente)
Ano2023
Volume27
Fascículo2
Páginas247-270
Data de publicação2023-02-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCitizenship Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1362-1025 • E-ISSN: 1469-3593
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13621025.2022.2073088
OpenAlexW4229377152
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas59

Drawing upon case studies from Cape Town, 'Africa's smartest city', this article proposes three theses on 'urban-digital citizenship'. First, we suggest that urban-digital citizenship is defined by borders which operate: i) at a socio-spatial level, through the unequal distribution of digital infrastructures across the urban space; ii) through the algorithmic techniques of monitoring, profiling, and sorting, which filter access to urban services, mobility, and participation. Our second argument is that urban-digital citizenship is 'speculative'. The algorithmic infrastructures that have increasingly come to govern urban life operate according to logics of preemption and experimentation that seek to model, and act upon, an array of possible future scenarios. The digitalisation of emergency and security response in Cape Town offers powerful examples of the ways in which urban citizens are caught in a mechanism of machine-learning speculations on future risks and anticipatory interventions. Finally, we propose that digital citizenship has a logistical character. Increasingly, 'smart' cities such as Cape Town function as clusters in global circuits of data, technology, and finance. As data centres and tech startups are concentrated in the urban area, urban citizens have become a testbed for new technological products and a crucial node in the geography of cloud computing

Citizenship · Computer security · Internet of Things · Political science · Politics · Regional science · Right to the city · Smart city · Sociology · Computer Science · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis · Law · Smart Cities and Technologies · Urban Planning and Governance · Urban Studies