This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms UNDOING OPTIMIZATION This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Undoing Optimization Civic Action in Smart Cities ALISON B. POWELL New Haven and London This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Calvin Chapin of the Class of 1788, Yale College. Copyright © 2021 by Alison B. Powell. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educa- tional, business, or promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or [email protected] (U.K. offi ce). Set in Janson type by IDS Infotech Ltd. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943776 ISBN 978-0-300-22380-4 (hardcover : alk. paper) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms For my mother and my daughter This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms This page intentionally left blank This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xi introduction. Technology, Citizenship, and Frameworks of the Smart City 1 one. Network Access and the Smart City of Connectivity 25 two. Data Cities and Visions of Optimization 54 three. Entrepreneurial Data Citizenships, Open Data Movements, and Audit Culture 80 four. Rethinking Civic Voice in Post-Neoliberal Cities 108 five. The Ends of Optimization 135 conclusion. The Right to Minimum Viable Datafi cation 163 This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CONTENTS Notes 179 Bibliography 187 Index 201 viii This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:45 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Preface This book was written over a long period of time, between 2008 and 2019. In 2020, as it went to press, the COVID-19 pandemic unrolled across the world. In response to the dif- ferential impacts of this pandemic on Black people and people of color, combined with the systemic racism of police, justice, and health systems in many countries, researchers and activ- ists began the deep rethinking and transformation of their work. These transformations will likely change how you, the reader, encounter this work. The use of digital data to measure and control movement may feel commonplace, with limited capacity for challenge. Equally, the discussion of technical systems as if they were neutral and available for an abstract “citizen” to use may feel naïve in a context where techno-systemic power is understood to be used in reinforc- ing white supremacy. I invite you to approach this book as a story of how we have arrived at this point, and to read its fi nal chapters as my ix This content downloaded from 75.69.47.32 on Mon, 26 Jul 2021 20:36:47 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms