Data Power in Action

Ola Söderström is Professor of Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Neuchâtel.Ayona Datta is Professor of Human Geography at University College London.

“A timely reflection on data power and resistance thanks to an impressive sequence of chapters by scholars of urban studies, digital geography, and computational culture. The political potential of urban data is thoroughly explored within theoretical frameworks of urban studies and critical geography.” Paolo Cardullo, IN3 Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

• Introduction: Urban data Politics in Times of Crisis - Ola Söderström and Ayona Datta Part 1: Framing Urban Data Politics1. Urban data, governmentality, capitalism, ethics and justice - Rob Kitchin2. Platforms as states: The rise of governance through data power - Petter Törnberg3. Data Ethics in Practice: Rethinking scales, trust and autonomy - Alison Powell4. The contingencies of urban data: between the interoperable and inoperable - AbdouMaliq SimonePart 2: Strategies5. Experiments in practice: New directions in municipal data policy and governance - Sarah Barns6. Webinars and War-rooms: Techno-politics of data in shaping COVID19 narratives - Ayona Datta and Ola Söderström7. The Smartmentality of Urban Data Politics: Evidence from Two Chinese Cities - Robin Xu Ying, Federico Caprotti and Crison ChienPart 3: Tactics8. Platform work, everyday life, and survival in times of crisis: views and experiences from Nairobi - Prince K Guma9. An urban data politics of scale: Lessons from South Africa - Jonathan Cinnamon10. Beyond ‘data positivism’. Civil society organizations’ data and knowledge tactics in South Africa - Evan Blake, Nancy Odendaal, Ola SöderströmEpilogue: Data, crisis, and learning - Orit Halpern