[Air-L] CfP EASST 2018 (July, Lancaster), Panel on Technology, Infrastructure, and the Smartification of Cities

Regev Nathansohn regev at umich.edu
Wed Jan 17 01:49:14 PST 2018


Dear colleagues,

We invite you to share your abstracts for a panel on Technology,
Infrastructure and the Smartification of Cities (C10)
<https://nomadit.co.uk/easst/easst2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6229>,
which will take place this July during EASST conference in Lancaster
<http://easst2018.easst.net>.

This panel seeks papers drawing from ethnographic explorations of Smart
Cities' confluences, collaborations and intersections between the various
stakeholders as well as between humans and the city's infrastructure. To
submit your abstract click here
<https://nomadit.co.uk/easst/easst2018/conferencesuite.php/paperproposal/6229>.


Short abstract

What are Smart Cities? This panel seeks contributions that explore what is
involved in processes of smartification, and examine what kind of
infrastructural work is required to enact and harmonize potentially
diverging technopolitical goals in the designs and everyday life of Smart
Cities.
Long abstract

A growing number of cities define themselves as "Smart Cities" based on the
widening and deepening of the technological platforms they implement. From
focusing on infrastructure and public services to culture and sociality,
Smart City projects allow for confluences, collaborations and intersections
of various stakeholders, such as developers and users, decision-makers and
residents, experts and non-experts, programmers and artists, entrepreneurs
and researchers.

Some stakeholders and observers argue that smart city projects contribute
to governance efficiency, to social connectedness, and to improvements of
climate, health and security. At the same time, critics show skepticism
regarding the goals assigned to urban digital tools (such as sensors, CCTV
cameras, and other digital tools), the practices of their operation, and
their derived political and ethical considerations (such as algorithm
governance and ubiquitous surveillance).

Since cities "smartification" is a vague social process with different,
sometimes contradicting meanings, this panel seeks papers drawing from
ethnographic explorations of Smart Cities' confluences, collaborations and
intersections between the various stakeholders as well as between humans
and the city's infrastructure. Such papers could focus on the various
interests, strategies and tactics involved in the invention, implementation
and use of Smart City projects; on processes of shaping urban sociality and
denizens' subjectivity through the design of digital platforms and
algorithms; on the formations of digital labor in the smart city's economy
of datafication; on forms of exercising power on and resistance of cyborg
citizens; and on the kinds of creative collaborations that evolve in and
around smart city projects.
Convenors

   - Davide Orsini (Mississippi State University)
   - Regev Nathansohn (University of Haifa)



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