Global technology companies and the politics of urban socio-technical imaginaries in the digital age

Processual proxies, Trojan horses and global beachheads

Bibliographic Data

ID4935693
AuthorsM Hodson (0000-0003-2987-4476, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK, corresponding author), Andrew Mcmeekin (0000-0001-5392-8361, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester, UK)
Year2021
Volume53
Issue6
Pages1391-1411
Publication date2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0308518x211002194
OpenAlexW3139106863
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited46

In this paper, we take the concept of 'new urban spaces' as our jumping off point to engage with the efforts of Alphabet/Google affiliate Sidewalk Labs to cultivate a new integrated digital and infrastructural urban space on the Toronto waterfront. We interrogate the process and politics of imagining this new, digital urban space as an urban socio-technical imaginary. The paper critically examines the central role of 'big tech' in producing the urban socio-technical imaginary not as a snapshot but, rather, as a 'process of becoming'. This processual focus on the role of big tech allows us to develop three interrelated analytical contributions. First, we generate in-depth understanding of the proxy politics of urban socio-technical imaginaries in constituting new digital urban spaces. Second, we argue that an urban socio-technical imaginary was used as a Trojan horse to promote private experimentation with urban governance. Third, we demonstrate attempts to imagine a global beachhead via 'the global model' of a new digital urban space predicated on the digital control of integrated urban infrastructure systems

Computer security · Geography · Political science · Politics · Regional science · Sociology · The Imaginary · Trojan horse · Urban space · Computer Science · Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis · Law · Smart Cities and Technologies · Water Governance and Infrastructure

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access