Undoing Optimization: Civic Action in Smart Cities

225 Pages·2021·2.087 MB·English

by  Alison B. Powell

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UNDOING OPTIMIZATION
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Undoing
Optimization
Civic Action in Smart Cities
ALISON B. POWELL
New Haven and London
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Published with assistance from the foundation established
in memory of Calvin Chapin of the Class
of 1788, Yale College.
Copyright © 2021 by Alison B. Powell.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the
public press), without written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educa-
tional, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail
[email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or [email protected] (U.K. offi ce).
Set in Janson type by IDS Infotech Ltd.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943776
ISBN 978-0-300-22380-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For my mother and my daughter
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Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
introduction. Technology, Citizenship, and
Frameworks of the Smart City 1
one. Network Access and the Smart City of
Connectivity 25
two. Data Cities and Visions of Optimization 54
three. Entrepreneurial Data Citizenships,
Open Data Movements, and Audit Culture 80
four. Rethinking Civic Voice in Post-Neoliberal
Cities 108
five. The Ends of Optimization 135
conclusion. The Right to Minimum
Viable Datafi cation 163
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CONTENTS
Notes 179
Bibliography 187
Index 201
viii
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Preface
This book was written over a long period of time, between
2008 and 2019. In 2020, as it went to press, the COVID-19
pandemic unrolled across the world. In response to the dif-
ferential impacts of this pandemic on Black people and people
of color, combined with the systemic racism of police, justice,
and health systems in many countries, researchers and activ-
ists began the deep rethinking and transformation of their
work.
These transformations will likely change how you, the
reader, encounter this work. The use of digital data to
measure and control movement may feel commonplace, with
limited capacity for challenge. Equally, the discussion of
technical systems as if they were neutral and available for an
abstract “citizen” to use may feel naïve in a context where
techno-systemic power is understood to be used in reinforc-
ing white supremacy.
I invite you to approach this book as a story of how we
have arrived at this point, and to read its fi nal chapters as my
ix
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