Introduction – discourse analysis: the turn to the tex

This paper explores the central role of computerized code in shaping the social and geographical politics of inequality in advanced societies. The central argument is that, while such processes are necessarily multifaceted, multiscaled, complex and ambivalent, a great variety of 'software-sorting' techniques is now being widely applied in efforts to try to separate privileged and marginalized groups and places across a wide range of sectors and domains. This paper's central demonstration is that the overwhelming bulk of software-sorting applications is closely associated with broader transformations from Keynesian to neoliberal service regimes. To illustrate such processes of software-sorting, the paper analyses recent research addressing three examples of software-sorting in practice. These address physical and electronic mobility systems, online geographical information systems (GIS), and face-recognition closed circuit television (CCTV) systems covering city streets. The paper finishes by identifying theoretical, research and policy implications of the diffusion of software-sorted geographies within which computerized code continually orchestrates inequalities through technological systems embedded within urban environments.

Software-sorted geographies

https://repub.eur.nl/pub/128632/1-s2.0-S0040162520309902-main.pdf

Citizen repertoires of smart urban safety: Perspectives from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

How does facial recognition as an urban safety technology affect firm performance? The moderating role of the home country’s government subsidies

Smart cities & citizen discontent: A systematic review of the literature

As the concept of the smart city gains attention among academic, industry and bureaucratic circles, policymakers and their partners are exploring its powers in many domains of city management. The city of Rotterdam (The Netherlands) is no exception, taking up the mantle of digitised governance with great fervour. However, urban safety management, there and everywhere else, remains seriously underrepresented as one such domain of application. This is a problem, since safety and its management pre-eminently bring out the most pressing ethical aspects of data-driven technologies (such as matters of privacy and social justice). To work towards a solution, we review the academic literature around smart cities and safety in general, analyse the commercial and policy discourses informing smart city initiatives around Rotterdam specifically, and take a look at some actual ‘smart’ urban safety practices in the city, which are not publicly qualified as such. In light of these analyses, we argue for a systematic and strategic integration of safety into the smart cities conversation in order to foster a more transparent, deliberate and therefore more democratically legitimate smart city.

Freek de Haan

Papers

Citizen repertoires of smart urban safety: Perspectives from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Finding Safety in the Smart City: A Discourse Analysis with Strategic Implications