Technoscience and Society – serie

In the contemporary moment, smart cities have become the dominant paradigm for urban planning and administration, which involves weaving the urban fabric with digital technologies. Recently, however, the promises of smart cities have been gradually supplanted by recognition of their inherent inequalities, and scholars are increasingly working to envision alternative smart cities.Informed by these pressing challenges, Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City foregrounds discussions of how we should think of and work towards urban digital justice in the smart city. It provides a deep exploration of the sources of injustice that percolate throughout a range of sociotechnical assemblages, and it questions whether working towards more just, sustainable, liveable, and egalitarian cities requires that we look beyond the limitations of "smartness" altogether. The book grapples with how geographies impact smart city visions and roll-outs, on the one hand, and how (unjust) geographies are produced in smart pursuits, on the other. Ultimately, Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City envisions alternative cities – smart or merely digital – and outlines the sorts of roles that the commons, utopia, and the law might take on in our conceptions and realizations of better cities.

In the contemporary moment, smart cities have become the dominant paradigm for urban planning and administration, which involves weaving the urban fabric with digital technologies. Recently, however, the promises of smart cities have been gradually supplanted by recognition of their inherent inequalities, and scholars are increasingly working to envision alternative smart cities.Informed by these pressing challenges, Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City foregrounds discussions of how we should think of and work towards urban digital justice in the smart city. It provides a deep exploration of the sources of injustice that percolate throughout a range of sociotechnical assemblages, and it questions whether working towards more just, sustainable, liveable, and egalitarian cities requires that we look beyond the limitations of "smartness" altogether. The book grapples with how geographies impact smart city visions and roll-outs, on the one hand, and how (unjust) geographies are produced in smart pursuits, on the other. Ultimately, Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City envisions alternative cities – smart or merely digital – and outlines the sorts of roles that the commons, utopia, and the law might take on in our conceptions and realizations of better cities.

From the smart phone to the smart home, smartness has become an almost inescapable reality of everyday life. Supposedly intelligent, interconnected technologies, smart systems have taken on their own forms of life, and it is no longer easy to determine who these systems benefit and what their long-term social and ethical implications may be. In twenty contributions spanning the social sciences, humanities, and the arts, The Smartification of Everything offers a deep dive into a variety of studies that critically interrogate smartification processes and systems.The book is edited by experts in science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, and sociology, and is written by academics and artists working across a diverse range of disciplines, including geography, architecture, and urban studies, among others. The volume moves beyond the digital hype cycle around smart cities, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things, which presents smart tech as neat spaces of continuous improvement. Instead, the authors illustrate how smartness is partial, messy, and contested, while also situated in specific sociocultural, historical, spatial, and political realities. The Smartification of Everything questions the potential and the limitations of smart systems and in doing so furthers our understanding of the complex dynamics today among technology, environment, and power.

From the smart phone to the smart home, smartness has become an almost inescapable reality of everyday life. Supposedly intelligent, interconnected technologies, smart systems have taken on their own forms of life, and it is no longer easy to determine who these systems benefit and what their long-term social and ethical implications may be. In twenty contributions spanning the social sciences, humanities, and the arts, The Smartification of Everything offers a deep dive into a variety of studies that critically interrogate smartification processes and systems.The book is edited by experts in science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, and sociology, and is written by academics and artists working across a diverse range of disciplines, including geography, architecture, and urban studies, among others. The volume moves beyond the digital hype cycle around smart cities, artificial intelligence, or the Internet of Things, which presents smart tech as neat spaces of continuous improvement. Instead, the authors illustrate how smartness is partial, messy, and contested, while also situated in specific sociocultural, historical, spatial, and political realities. The Smartification of Everything questions the potential and the limitations of smart systems and in doing so furthers our understanding of the complex dynamics today among technology, environment, and power.

An Anthropogenic Table of Elements provides a contemporary rethinking of Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table of elements, bringing together "elemental" stories to reflect on everyday life in the Anthropocene.Concise and engaging, this book provides stories of scale, toxicity, and temporality that extrapolate on ideas surrounding ethics, politics, and materiality that are fundamental to this contemporary moment. Examining elemental objects and forces, including carbon, mould, cheese, ice, and viruses, the contributors question what elemental forms are still waiting to emerge and what political possibilities of justice and environmental reparation they might usher into the world.Bringing together anthropologists, historians, and media studies scholars, this book tests a range of possible ways to tabulate and narrate the elemental as a way to bring into view fresh discussion on material constitutions and, thereby, new ethical stances, responsibilities, and power relations. In doing so, An Anthropogenic Table of Elements demonstrates through elementality that even the smallest and humblest stories are capable of powerful effects and vast journeys across time and space.