Implications of 'Data as Infrastructure': Governance and Citizenship in Smart Urbanism

由于我的目标是学术生涯，这个奖学金提供了一个很好的机会来加强我作为早期职业研究员的资格。为了实现这一点，DDH对我来说将是一个很好的环境，因为它代表着在关键数据研究方面的杰出专业知识。此外，“数据世界”是该系的核心研究课题之一，该系亦与GLA在数据研究方面紧密合作，为我的研究提供了理想的发展环境。我的研究重点是（开放）数据驱动的实践，倡议和话语在伦敦的智慧城市规划的背景下。由于智慧城市在地理学的子学科中得到了广泛的研究，我的研究填补了文献中的空白，将数字媒体研究和科学技术研究（STS）作为焦点，同时也借鉴了地理文献。我没有将智慧城市概括为一个由企业力量炮制和强加的项目，而是讨论了那些在一个关系网络内共同发展的举措，作为伦敦治理的一部分，这些关系网络始终是信息。通过从数据驱动的基础设施、话语和公民行为的角度对伦敦进行全面研究，我的框架的新颖性使我能够对数据驱动的治理这一紧迫问题提供见解。我的研究将智能城市和数据驱动型治理置于更广泛的数字文化辩论中，通过追溯控制论与城市规划之间的历史关系，从而有助于研究“实际存在的智能城市”（Shelton et al. 2014）。此外，我特别关注开放数据的原因是，它是在智能伦敦政策中实施的，目的是创建一个“以公民为中心”的城市。然而，跟随其他人对“开放”和开放数据的良性本质提出质疑（见Bates 2013； Tkacz, 2012; Worthy, 2015），并在城市背景下仔细审视它，我表明，由于其偶然性和政治性，开放公共数据并不一定会产生一个更透明和参与性的城市。我的研究对理解数据技术和倡议是如何在城市环境中制定、实现和重申的重要贡献。我想利用这个奖学金作为一个机会来开发高影响力的出版物，以便将我的发现传达给学术用户。这包括在高级期刊（如大数据与社会和环境与规划D：社会与空间）上发表两篇文章，并在高知名度的国际会议（AAG和EASST）上发表两篇工作论文。在奖学金结束时，我的目标是从一个著名的学术出版商（如麻省理工学院出版社，Polity，劳特利奇）那里获得一份出书合同。除了学术出版物之外，这个奖学金为我提供了一个很好的机会来扩大我的学术网络，并通过参加国际会议来提高我的知名度。为了发展我未来的研究和知识交流，我想在纽约组织一次对世界上最著名的数据研究组织、data &Society和AI Now的研究访问。在这次旅行中，我也将在新学院受到接待。除了学术受众外，我的研究还与数据技术从业者、城市规划者和地方政府政策制定者以及产业战略（“人工智能与数据经济”主题）产生了很大的共鸣。为了实现潜在的政策影响，我希望通过与非营利性中介组织和在该领域工作的智库（例如未来城市弹射器，开放数据研究所[ODI]， GLA的智慧城市规划委员会，网络沙龙）的合作，利用这个奖学金向城市规划者，技术专家和政策制定者传播我的工作。

Since I aim for an academic career, this fellowship provides an excellent opportunity to strengthen my qualifications as an early career researcher. In order to realise this, DDH would be an excellent environment for me, as it stands for outsanding expertise on critical data studies. Besides the fact that 'data worlds' is one of their core research topics, the department also fosters close collaborations with the GLA regarding data research - providing the perfect environment for the further development of my research. My research focuses on (open) data-driven practices, initiatives and discourses in the context of smart city planning in London. Since smart cities have been widely studied within the sub-disciplines of geography, my research fills a gap in the literature by keeping digital media studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS) as a focal point, while also drawing upon geographical literature. Rather than encapsulating smart cities as a project concocted and imposed by corporate forces, I discuss those initiatives that co-develop within a network of relations that is always in-formation as part of London governance. The novelty of my framework enables me to offer insight into the urgent issue of data-driven governance, by grounding itself on a comprehensive study of London in terms of data-driven infrastructure, discourse and citizenship acts. My research locates smart cities and data-driven governance within the wider debates of digital culture, by tracing a historical lineage to the relation between cybernetics and urban planning, thus contributes to studying "actually existing smart cities" (Shelton et al. 2014). Additionally, the reason I focus on open data in particular is the fact that it was implemented within smart London policies in order to create a "citizen-centric" city. However, following others who have raised questions regarding the benign nature of "openness" and open data (see Bates 2013; Tkacz, 2012; Worthy, 2015), and scrutinizing it in the urban context, I show that, due to its contingent and political nature, opening up public data does not inexorably yield a more transparent and participatory city. My research is an important contribution to understand how data technologies and initiatives are enacted, materialised and reiterated in the urban context. I want to use this fellowship as an opportunity to develop high-impact publications, in order to communicate my findings to academic users. This involves the publication of two articles in high-ranking journals (e.g. Big Data & Society and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space), and two working papers to be presented at high-profile international conferences (AAG and EASST). At the end of the fellowship I aim to secure a book contract from a prestigious academic publisher (e.g. The MIT Press, Polity, Routledge). In addition to academic publications, this fellowship provides an excellent opportunity for me to expand my academic networks and raise my profile by attending international conferences. In pursuit of developing my future research and for knowledge exchange, I want to organise a research visit to world's most prominent organisations in data research, Data &Society and AI Now in New York. During the same trip, I will also be hosted at The New School.Besides academic audiences, my research heavily resonates with practitioners in data technologies, urban planners and policymakers in local governments, and to the Industrial Strategy ("AI & Data Economy" theme). In order to realise the potential for policy impact, I want to use this fellowship to disseminate my work to urban planners, technologists and policymakers, through collaborations with non-profit intermediary organisations and think tanks working in the field (e.g. Future Cities Catapult, Open Data Insitute [ODI], smart city planning committee at the GLA, Cybersalon).