ABSTRACT
The manifold ways that new networked technologies influence contemporary urban life lie beyond the scope of this chapter (for some of this story see: Crang and Graham 2007; Farman 2012; Gordon and de Souza e Silva 2011; Graham 2010b; Jensen 2013; McCullough 2004; Wilken and Goggin 2012). Rather I want to approach this by way of discussing a research agenda that targets these new technologies very directly. I am thinking of Kitchin’s notion of the programmable city and how that research agenda may fit the aim of this chapter. Kitchin argues that when analyzing the relationship between software and the city, there are two important distinctions to be made (Kitchin 2011: 946). One is termed “translation” and has the focus of how cities are translated into code. The other is termed “transduction” and raises the question of how code reshapes city life. Within each of these dimensions a subset of questions arises. In the dimension of translation we may ask how to understand the city as digital data are generated and processed. We may inquire about managing the city in the sense of looking at how city government discourses and practices are translated into code. We may explore how the geography and political economy of software production shape various coding practices. Finally, the theme of “translation” points at the issue of how software becomes legitimated and discursively produced by power and vested interests. The second dimension termed “transduction” equally gives rise to a set of questions. How does software drive public policy in both its implementation and development? In managerial terms, how is software regulating and governing urban life? In terms of work, how does software alter the nature of work and its urban expression? And finally how does software work to transform the material and spatial dimensions of cities?
