Title
From infrastructural breakdown to data vandalism : repoliticizing the smart city?
Document Type
Journal article
Source Publication
Television and New Media
Publication Date
7-1-2016
Volume
17
Issue
5
First Page
397
Last Page
415
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Keywords
smart city, data, social media, participation, protest, Istanbul
Abstract
The smart city is often approached by its critics as a “system” that exploits optimal connectivity and efficiency for an urban society of control. Meanwhile, the actual operation of “smart city” assemblages in globalizing cities—characterized by development and breakdown, connectivity and disconnection—is seldom the basis of analysis. By focusing on the interplays between these dualities, this article aims to underscore the modalities of power and political possibilities of dissent in Istanbul, Turkey. Data-based smart city apparatuses are supposed to at once fix infrastructural breakdown and stabilize the socio-political order. However, during the Gezi protests of 2013, the integrated tactics of sabotage in urban space and data vandalism in the digital realm undermined both data control by the state and its political authority. Yet Gezi’s example also shows that hyperconnectivity, data motility, and virality by themselves do not necessarily lead to more meaningful participation in urban politics.
DOI
10.1177/1527476415617032
Print ISSN
15274764
E-ISSN
15528316
Publisher Statement
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015
Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.
Full-text Version
Publisher’s Version
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Hoyng, R. (2016). From infrastructural breakdown to data vandalism: Repoliticizing the smart city? Television and New Media, 17(5), 397-415. doi: 10.1177/1527476415617032
