ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the relationship between data and the city in a broad sense, focusing on the creation of real-time cities and data-driven urbanism and how the ever-greater flows of data are transforming city services, infrastructures, urban life and how we understand and govern cities. It focuses attention on the nature of urban data, examining them from ontological, political, practical and technical points of view. The book examines the constellation of existing and emerging urban data technologies and infrastructures. It explores a range of political, practical and technical issues and epistemological and theoretical approaches with respect to building, operating and making sense of such data-driven systems. The book considers the social and political configurations of urban data infrastructures and data-driven systems and who they are operated by, their purposes and who they serve.
