Rob Kitchin has published a new Programmable City working paper (No. 23), ‘Urban science: a short primer‘, on SocArXiv.
Abstract: This paper provides a short introductory overview of urban science. It defines urban science, details its practioners and their aims, sets out its relationship to urban informatics and urban studies, and explains its epistemology and the analysis of urban big data. It then summarizes criticism of urban science with respect to epistemology, instrumental rationality, data issues, and ethics. It is concluded that urban science research will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, providing a valuable means of making sense of cities, but that it is unlikely it will become a new paradigm, producing an integrative approach that replaces the diverse philosophical traditions within urban studies.
We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher (14 month contract) to join the Programmable City project. The researcher will critically examine:
the political economy of smart city technologies and initiatives; the creation of smart city markets; the inter-relation of urban (re)development and smart city initiatives; the relationship between vendors, business lobby groups, economic development agencies, and city administrations; financialization and new business models; and/or,
the relationship between the political geography of city administration, governance arrangements, and smart city initiatives; political and legal geographies of testbed urbanism and smart city initiatives; smart city technologies and governmentality.
There will be some latitude to negotiate with the principal investigator the exact focus of the research undertaken. While some of the research will require primary fieldwork (Dublin/Boston), it is anticipated it will also involve the secondary analysis of data already generated by the project.
More details on the post and how to apply can be found on the university HR website. Closing date: 5th December.
In early September the Programmable City project at NUI Maynooth will be hosting a number of the foremost thinkers on the intersection of software, ubiquitous computing and the city for a two day workshop entitled ‘Code and the City’.
We’re really excited to be gathering together these scholars to discuss their ideas and research. We’ve structured the programme so that each session lasts for two hours, with c. an hour for presentations, followed by an hour of discussion and debate. Full draft written papers will be circulated in advance to attendees.
To try and make sure the event operates as a workshop we are limiting the numbers attending to the speakers, plus our team, plus a handful of open slots. If you are interested in attending then please email Sung-Yueh.Perng@nuim.ie with your request by June 6th, setting out why you would like to attend. We will then allocate the additional places by June 13th.
Introduction
Code and the City
Rob Kitchin, NIRSA, National University of Ireland Maynooth
Session 1: Automation/algorithms
Cities in code: how software repositories express urban life
Adrian Mackenzie, Sociology, Lancaster University
Autonomy and automation in the coded city
Sam Kinsley, Geography, University of Exeter
Interfacing Urban Intelligence
Shannon Mattern, Media Studies, New School NY
Session 2: Abstraction and urbanisation
Encountering the city at hackathons
Sophia Maalsen and Sung-Yueh Perng, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Disclosing Disaster? A Study of Ethics, Praxeology and Phenomenology in a Mobile World
Monika Büscher, With Michael Liegl, Katrina Petersen, Mobilities.Lab, Lancaster University, UK
Riot’s Ratio, on the genealogy of agent-based modeling and the cities of civil war
Matthew Fuller and Graham Harwood, Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths
Session 3: Social/locative media
Digital social interactions in the city: Reflecting on location-based social media
Luigina Ciolfi, Human-Centred Computing, Sheffield Hallam University
A Window, a Message, or a Medium? Learning about cities from Instagram
Lev Manovich, Computer Science, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Feeling place in the city: strange ontologies, Foursquare and location-based social media
Leighton Evans, National University of Ireland Maynooth
Mobility in the actually existing smart city: Developing a multilayered model for the mobile computing dispositif
Jim Merricks White, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Session 4: Knowledge classification and ontology
Cities and Context: The Codification of Small Areas through Geodemographic Classification
Alex Singleton, Geography, University of Liverpool
The city and the Feudal Internet: Examining Institutional Materialities
Paul Dourish, Informatics, UC Irvine
From Jerusalem to Kansas City: New geopolitics and the Semantic Web
Heather Ford and Mark Graham, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Session 5: Governance
From community access to community calculation: exploring alternative urban governance through code
Alison Powell, Media & Communications, LSE
Code and the socio-spatial stratification of the city
Agnieszka Leszczynski, Geography, University of Birmingham
The Cryptographic City
David M. Berry, Media & Communication, University of Sussex
