Recording Plan: No

Curated Track: 

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Call For Participation

Description:

We are in an era where democracy is perceived to be in constant crisis, marked by feelings of political powerlessness, mistrust, apathy, and negativity (Harrison, 2009; Clarke et al., 2017; Bissell et al., 2020). It may not be surprising that geographers and others researching digital cities - under labels such as smart cities, platform urbanism, urban AI and more - tend to treat democratic politics with pessimism, scepticism, or even antagonism. Digital cities are often seen as sites where: negative, polarised, or reactionary political affects become amplified; potential democratic subjects are nudged and targeted via algorithmic mediation; or public opinions, sentiments and actions are manipulated and managed rather than activated. For many scholars, democracy shows up in digital cities when it is undermined or suppressed, or emerges in the form of overt resistance or protest.

This pair of sessions explores what ‘democracy’ means in digital cities more affirmatively and pragmatically. This implies two key starting points. The first is to study democracy as it is ordinarily practised in digital cities. Following Barnett (2003; 2017), this means exploring democratic practices as they are articulated, performed and felt (see also Crossan et al., 2022; Bodden, 2023). Rather than implicitly or explicitly predefining democracy via universal theories or categories, we are interested in the study of how broadly democratic values (e.g. representation, participation, equity) emerge through promises or claims in situated practice.

The second starting point is to conceptualise digital cities as an environmental condition for emerging democratic practices. Rather than focusing on urban political control by digital companies, subtle manipulation by algorithmic systems, or spectacular or extreme political agents or events, we are interested in how digital infrastructures, affordances and techniques may create new conditions of possibility for democratic practices in and in relation to cities. These practices may extend from banal practices, such as daily contributions to social media, to more organised practices such as civic hacking, journalism experiments, or political campaigning.

These sessions open geographic and related interdisciplinary perspectives that take seriously empirical investigations and situated accounts of digitalised places and spaces for shaping or changing democratic narratives, actions and empowerment.

Non-Presenting Participants