Cyberspace and cityscapes: on the emergence of platform urbanism
Jathan Sadowski
Abstract
Technological modes of urbanism continue to transform and expand with new technologies, new actors, and new developments that are ripe for critical geographical analysis. This series of interventions focuses on capturing and understanding a still evolving movement called platform urbanism, which is centered around the growing presence and power of digital platforms in cities. This different mixture of capital-technology-cities tends to be more directly connected to consumers, more intent on rapid scaling, and more antagonistic to governments and incumbent industries. This series lays out how the emergence of platform urbanism is already provoking serious issues related to the oversight, operation, and ownership of urban services and spaces. Thematically, the series is organized around making sense of different geographical relationships at the center of platform urbanism. This contribution focuses on the dual production of space (digital/physical) and value (data/money) within cities.