Social spatial patterns of urban development and how they are affected by ‘big tech’.
Social spatial patterns of urban development and how they are affected by ‘big tech’.
Social spatial patterns of urban development and how they are affected by ‘big tech’.
Abstract:
Companies like Amazon.com, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft have posed challenges to urban planning in recent years and raised questions in urban geography. This was exemplified by the story of Alphabet Inc. and its moonshot attempt to develop Quayside on Toronto's waterfront. Overwhelmingly, such projects receive attention in tech circles that are looking to develop futuristic urban worlds, innovating digital products fit for purpose, or simply aiming to expand respective markets. The case of Quayside was important because it also raised international attention to the critical issues of public oversight, and the balance of power between public and private institutions. The fact that it never transpired also invokes a different kind of problem of urban governance as well. However, the dazzling digital city is only one manifestation of digital agendas for cities. Other domains are the ‘hard’ spaces. These include office spaces, data centers, and fulfilment—the resource-intensive infrastructural support structures of digital industries that come with significant impications for land use and social spatial urban change. Looking at these patterns paints a still larger picture of how powerful digital corporations affect systemwide scales of urban and regional development, endorse particular trajectories of social spatial restructuring, and change how one might think about cities.
Speaker:
Constance Carr
Geography & Spatial Planning, University of Luxembourg
constance.carr@uni.lu
Bio:
Carr is a Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Geography & Spatial Planning, University of Luxembourg. She
leads a research team exploring how digital corporations shape urban development and constitute new relational geographies of digital cities. Cities in focus include Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Kyiv, Toronto, Washington DC, and Seattle. She talked about this work at a variety of European research institutions including University of Stavanger, Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Polytechnic University of Milan, and Cambridge. Her work can be found in several journals including Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Planning Theory & Practice, and European Planning Studies.
