Data-Driven Participation: Algorithms, Cities, Citizens, and Corporate Control

Tenney, Matthew; Sieber, Renée

doi:10.17645/up.v1i2.645

Cited by 53 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 85 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The experience of Paths for People is similar to the two other PPGIS project case studies (Brown & Chin, 2013;Tenney & Sieber, 2016). In the past, the City of Edmonton has dragged out the urban planning process when it comes to biking infrastructure despite their transportation plans prioritizing non-vehicular modes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…PPGIS/PGIS is more likely to be open while VGI data tend to be more closed and those who contribute VGI data have little or no control over the use of the data (Verplanke et al, 2016). However, grassroots organization may have no control over their PPGIS/PGIS data if they rely on a third-party to implement the project (Tenney & Sieber, 2016).…”

Section: Comparing Spatial Data Collection Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In studies on public input for urban planning, Innes (1996) found that municipalities seldom use collected feedback for decision-making. Other case studies show that public input seems to be ignored in favour of corporate interests (Brown & Chin, 2013), or public participation can be suddenly stopped (Tenney & Sieber, 2016). These outcomes suggest that citizens have little influence on urban planning despite more data and Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems PPGIS PPGIS is a small-scale GIS project created to collect geospatial data from the general public for a single purpose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Five classes of geospatial data and the barriers to using them

Reynard

2018

Geography Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Geospatial technologies implemented through the World Wide Web (Geoweb) have improved steadily over the last decade. This Geoweb has the potential to allow citizens to collect and use geospatial data in an effort to influence urban planning in a bottom‐up manner—a stark departure from traditional top‐down public consultation in urban planning. This article reviews five classes of geospatial data available to citizens trying to influence urban planning. These classes have been reviewed in the academic literature before, but not at the same time and not with respect to urban planning. Looking at them together allows for examination of the interconnection as well as the boundaries between them. This paper establishes an understanding of these Geoweb data classes and examines the main barriers citizens face when trying to use geospatial data—with a focus on technological and financial barriers. Despite improvements in the Geoweb that help in reducing these barriers, preliminary evidence suggests that the voices of citizens are still not being fully heard in urban planning. This article tells the story of a Geoweb project by Paths for People, a biking and walking advocacy group in Edmonton, Canada. Paths for People initiated a Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS) project to inform the development of biking infrastructure in Edmonton, but this was largely ignored by city council, which adopted a top‐down cycling plan. This paper highlights the large gap between the promises of the Geoweb, the current practice of urban planning, and grassroots capabilities of this form of community engagement.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Comparing Spatial Data Collection Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Five classes of geospatial data and the barriers to using them

Reynard

2018

Geography Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Others have examined how digital media and devices "augment" the experience of urban spaces, mediating relationships of power (Graham et al 2013). While scholars explore the possibilities for "citizen participation" in smart city initiatives, they have often found very limited and constrained forms of participation in practice (Cardullo and Kitchin 2018;Tenney and Sieber 2016), highlighting the ways smart city programs turn political issues of urban governance into problems with "technical" solutions. Citizen participation becomes constrained by techno-solutionist logics.…”

Section: Digital Geographies and The "Smart City"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Contesting Digital Futures: Urban Politics, Alternative Economies, and the Movement for Technological Sovereignty in Barcelona

Lynch

2019

Antipode

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars have offered important critiques of the socio‐spatial processes of contemporary technological development, including the rise of “smart city” urban development models. While these critiques have been essential for understanding contemporary forms of techno‐capitalism and their reach into new areas, this paper calls for a consideration of alternative modes of digital development in urban life beyond the logics of securitisation and capital accumulation. In particular, I examine the critical discourses and experimental practices of a grassroots movement focused on claiming “technological sovereignty” (TS) in Barcelona. The TS movement is a broad, de‐centralised network of cooperatives, associations, and community initiatives experimenting with alternative practices of locally rooted, open‐source digital development. These groups explore democratic and cooperative practices of work, property, production, and consumption in relation to digital technology, based around an ethics of care and a commitment to working through and within local communities. In examining the values, beliefs, and practices of the TS movement, I bring ongoing discussions around digitalisation and the “smart city” into critical conversation with the extensive literature on prefigurative urban politics and postcapitalist economies.

show abstract

“…Bucher, ; Diakopoulos, ; Ziewitz, ; Seaver, ). Urban studies scholars have extended these conversations to smart cities and data‐driven urbanism (Kitchin, ; ; Del Casino, ; Tenney and Sieber, ). Meanwhile, urban geographers have increasingly engaged with questions of the racialization of space.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

Safransky¹

2019

Int J Urban Regional Res

123

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

City governments are embracing data‐driven and algorithmic planning to tackle urban problems. Data‐driven analytics have an unprecedented capacity to call urban futures into being. At the same time, they can depoliticize planning decisions. I argue that this shift calls urban studies scholars to investigate geographies of algorithmic violence—a repetitive and standardized form of violence that contributes to the racialization of space and spatialization of poverty. This article examines this broader phenomenon through the case of a proprietary market value assessment that is being used to guide development in cities across the United States. The assessment employs an algorithm that helps city officials make critical decisions about which neighborhoods to target for investment, disinvestment and public service upgrades or disconnections. I argue that the racial, infrastructural, and epistemological violence associated with this evaluation can potentially lead to a new kind of municipal redlining. The article brings insights from critical race theory into conversation with critical scholarship on algorithms by analyzing how algorithmic violence works through data‐driven planning technologies to depoliticize and leverage power while further entrenching racism and inequality.

show abstract

Data-Driven Participation: Algorithms, Cities, Citizens, and Corporate Control

Cited by 53 publications

References 85 publications

Five classes of geospatial data and the barriers to using them

Five classes of geospatial data and the barriers to using them

Contesting Digital Futures: Urban Politics, Alternative Economies, and the Movement for Technological Sovereignty in Barcelona

Geographies of Algorithmic Violence: Redlining the Smart City

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About