Performing the sharing economy

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.

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Software-sorted geographies:

There are increasing concerns about changes in society and the economy which are undermining the effectiveness of democracy and weakening traditional conceptions of citizenship. What does it mean to be a British citizen in the early part of the twenty-first century? This book presents the first major empirical study of citizenship in Britain, comprising surveys of political participation and voluntary activities, and of the beliefs and values which underpin them. As well as presenting new data, the authors provide a sophisticated discussion of the concept of citizenship, and the consequences of a lack of civic engagement in a modern democracy. It examines why some people are 'good' citizens when others are 'bad' and it explores the consequences of citizenship for policy-makers and democracy. Comprehensive and accessible, this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of civic attitudes in Britain today and will appeal to students, researchers and policy-makers.

Citizenship in Britain: Values, Participation and Democracy

Quality of life: public planning and private living

This article argues that standardized, public or private infrastructure monopolies are receding as hegemonic forms of urban infrastructure development We are starting to witness the uneven overlaying of new, customized, high-performance urban infrastructures onto the apparently immanent, universal and (usually) public monopoly networks laid down in developed cities between the 1930s and 1960s This article seeks to develop a broad and international exploration of the construction of such premium networked spaces and to begin analysing how they are bound up within wider processes of urban change and restructuring To this end it highlights four processes of socio-technical and political economic change that are supporting the emergence of premium networked infrastructures These are: the ‘unbundling’ of urban infrastructure provision; the erosion of comprehensive urban planning and the construction of new consumption spaces; the emergence of infrastructural consumerism; and the widespread shift towards extended and automobilized cityscapes In each case, the article explores emerging examples of premium networked spaces via brief case studies Finally, the article reflects on the likely limits to these trends, by way of a brief conclusion

Cet article sugg ere que les monopoles d’infrastructures uniformis´s, prives ou publics, disparaissent en tant que formes h´gemoniques du developpement d’infrastructure urbaine Nous commen??ons a voir la superposition inegale de nouvelles infrastructures urbaines de haut rendement, faites sur mesure, sur les r´seaux de monopole (generalement) publics universels, apparemment immanents, mis en place dans les villes developp´es entre les annees trente et les ann´es soixante Cet article tente de developper une perspective internationale de la construction de ces espaces de reseaux recherches, et de commencer a analyser comment ils sont relies dans le contexte du processus de changement et de restructuration urbains plus larges Pour ce faire, il souligne quatre processus de changement politico-economique et socio-technique qui supportent l’apparition des infrastructures de reseaux recherch´es Ce sont: le ‘d´sempaquetage’ de la provision d’infrastructure urbaine; l’erosion de la planification urbaine comprehensive et la construction de nouveaux espaces de consommation; l’apparition du consomm´risme infrastructurel; et un changement general vers des paysages de citeetendus et motorises Dans chaque cas, l’article explore des exemples emergents d’espaces de reseaux recherches avec de brefs cas d’etude Enfin, dans sa conclusion, l’article reflechit aux limites probables de ces tendances

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Constructing premium network spaces: reflections on infrastructure networks and contemporary urban development

Caught between the twin pressures of rising public expectations and falling resources, public services have become the subject of intense academic scrutiny and public debate. Much of this controversy has been fuelled by a growing realisation that where people live has an important influence upon their access to services. The so-called 'postcode lottery.'
The first part of this book considers what is meant by the term 'collective consumption' and discusses the main differences between the British and American loyal government systems. It examines various geographical schools of analysis which focus on jurisdictional partitioning, locational efficiency, externalities and locational conflict. Subsequent chapters explore the relevance of public choice, neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist theories for an understanding of collective consumption. The final section looks at ways in which spatial perspectives can be linked with broader theoretical approaches in the context of modern developments. 
This book was first published in it's current form in 1985.

Steven Pinch

Papers

Cities and Services: The geography of collective consumption