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P120


The city as controlled environment - bringing together STS perspectives on urban transformations 
Convenors:
Sophia Knopf (School of Social Sciences and Technology, TU Munich)
Devika Prakash (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)
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Chair:
Manuel Jung (Technical University of Munich)
Format:
Traditional Open Panel
Location:
HG-15A16
Sessions:
Wednesday 17 July, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam

Short Abstract:

Scholars from STS and related fields have created a rich body of work on urban governance, both in terms of how urban innovation is governed as well as how cities are rendered governable. We hope to bring these different ambitions into conversation by mobilizing the analytical lens of “control”.

Long Abstract:

Within the last few years, scholars from STS, urban studies and related fields have created a rich body of work on urban governance, both in terms of how urban innovation is governed (Joss 2015) as well as how cities are rendered governable (Karvonen 2020). The purpose of our panel is to bring these different ambitions on urban governance and technological transformations into conversation with each other by mobilizing the notion of “control” as an analytical lens.

In the smart city context, the integrated control room conceptualizes the city as a system of systems that can be integrated and controlled from one centralized node (Goodspeed 2015). These subsystems function as 'oligopticons' that neatly separate and bundle urban functions and allow them to be managed scientifically (Latour and Hermant 1998). A similar promise comes from the emerging technology of Digital Urban Twins, i.e., digital representations of urban spaces and their operations (Dembski et al, 2020). However, these twins also come with a second promise: functioning as virtual laboratories for cities, in which future scenarios can be simulated in the safe environment of a digitally represented city. In turn, the proliferating test bed landscape has to navigate the tension between openness and the constitution of controlled spaces, for example by equipping infrastructure with sensors for autonomous driving (Engels et al. 2019).

With this loose collection of ideas, we hope that this panel allows us to explore different ideas, articulations and empirical insights, and to see in which ways the conceptualization of the city as a “controlled environment” can be fruitful for thinking about urban transformations. We encourage contributions from junior scholars and PhD students.

Accepted papers:

Session 1 Wednesday 17 July, 2024, -
Session 2 Wednesday 17 July, 2024, -