Overview
- Uniquely examines digital disruption and cities through the lens of platform strategy, combining business, technology, and data strategy and interaction design to produce 'platform ecosystems'
- The first book to argue that the principles governing and shaping the development of successful digital platforms are becoming increasingly powerful in the design, experience and governance of cities
- Spans the fields of urban cultural geography, digital strategy, urban policy and media history, which shapes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study and understanding of the challenges that platform ecosystems present cities
- Raises awareness of the significance of platform ecosystems in driving major disruptions to many aspects of our urban spaces and places
Part of the book series: Geographies of Media (GOM)
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About this book
This book reflects on what it means to live as urban citizens in a world increasingly shaped by the business and organisational logics of digital platforms. Where smart city strategies promote the roll-out of internet of things (IoT) technologies and big data analytics by city governments worldwide, platform urbanism responds to the deep and pervasive entanglements that exist between urban citizens, city services and platform ecosystems today.
Recent years have witnessed a backlash against major global platforms, evidenced by burgeoning literatures on platform capitalism, the platform society, platform surveillance and platform governance, as well as regulatory attention towards the market power of platforms in their dominance of global data infrastructure.
This book responds to these developments and asks: How do platform ecosystems reshape connected cities? How do urban researchers and policy makers respondto the logics of platform ecosystems and platform intermediation? What sorts of multisensory urban engagements are rendered through platform interfaces and modalities? And what sorts of governance challenges and responses are needed to cultivate and champion the digital public spaces of our connected lives.
Recent years have witnessed a backlash against major global platforms, evidenced by burgeoning literatures on platform capitalism, the platform society, platform surveillance and platform governance, as well as regulatory attention towards the market power of platforms in their dominance of global data infrastructure.
This book responds to these developments and asks: How do platform ecosystems reshape connected cities? How do urban researchers and policy makers respondto the logics of platform ecosystems and platform intermediation? What sorts of multisensory urban engagements are rendered through platform interfaces and modalities? And what sorts of governance challenges and responses are needed to cultivate and champion the digital public spaces of our connected lives.
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Keywords
Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“In this cogently argued and richly illustrated book Sarah Barns details how platform thinking and capitalism is reshaping cities. Rooted in a historical analysis of how the digital has increasingly mediated urban infrastructures and management, she carefully unpacks how platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, as well as companies such as Google and Softbank, have quickly established global operations to provide services for citizens and governments alike. The result is a compelling account of how new platforms are transforming city marketplaces, urban governance and everyday life.” (Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute)
“Platform urbanism is the first analysis of the digital platforms permeating 21st century cities. It is an important text that provides a framework for theorizing the constant flux of platforms as they transform key components of our everyday lives: economic and social exchange, urban governance, and the data infrastructures that facilitate the circulation of people, goods, and information. Readers will leave with a new understanding of the immaterial, digital fabric forming the foundation of cities today.” (Alan Wiig, University of Massachusetts, Boston)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Sarah Barns is a digital strategist, policy researcher, practitioner and scholar, with a career-long commitment to cultivating digital public spaces in connected cities. Having worked as policy adviser, digital strategist, urban consultant and creative producer, Sarah completed a PhD on the history of digital urbanism in 2010, using mobile media as a platform for experiential histories of urban activism. In 2014 Sarah was awarded an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for her project ‘Platform Urbanism: data infomediaries, city labs and open data experiments in urban governance’, based at Western Sydney University and Australia’s national data science agency Data61. Today Sarah develops urban data policy and strategy for a range of public and private organisations, as well as being one half of Sydney digital placemaking practice Esem Projects.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Platform Urbanism
Book Subtitle: Negotiating Platform Ecosystems in Connected Cities
Authors: Sarah Barns
Series Title: Geographies of Media
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9725-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-32-9724-1Published: 02 January 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-32-9727-2Published: 26 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-981-32-9725-8Published: 07 December 2019
Series ISSN: 3005-012X
Series E-ISSN: 3005-0138
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 232
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 3 illustrations in colour
Topics: Human Geography, Urbanism, Urban Studies/Sociology