A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences

Shannon Mattern

Published by Princeton University Press 2021

A City Is Not a Computer

Other Urban Intelligences

Shannon Mattern

Volume 2 in the series Places Books

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691226750

Overview
Contents

About this book

A bold reassessment of "smart cities" that reveals what is lost when we conceive of our urban spaces as computers

Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficiencies and conveniences. Yet these models limit our understanding of what we can know about a city. A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models.

Shannon Mattern begins by examining the ethical and ontological implications of urban technologies and computational models, discussing how they shape and in many cases profoundly limit our engagement with cities. She looks at the methods and underlying assumptions of data-driven urbanism, and demonstrates how the "city-as-computer" metaphor, which undergirds much of today's urban policy and design, reduces place-based knowledge to information processing. Mattern then imagines how we might sustain institutions and infrastructures that constitute more diverse, open, inclusive urban forms. She shows how the public library functions as a steward of urban intelligence, and describes the scales of upkeep needed to sustain a city's many moving parts, from spinning hard drives to bridge repairs.

Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, A City Is Not a Computer offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design.

Author / Editor information

Shannon Mattern is professor of anthropology at the New School for Social Research. Her books include Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: Five Thousand Years of Urban Media and The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities. She lives in New York City. Website wordsinspace.net Instagram @atlas.sounds Twitter @shannonmattern

Reviews

"Mattern offers a radically new perspective on the city as information and our modes of engagement with it. This stunning book presents a set of ideas that will continue to have a profound effect on scholarship and practice."—Daniel A. Barber, author of Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning

"Mattern compellingly argues that smart urbanism is too technocratic and instrumental in its approach to urban life, predominately serving the interests of capital and elites. In this engaging and well-illustrated book, she opens up new ways of thinking about the relationship between technology, space, and society."—Rob Kitchin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Cities, Trees & Algorithms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. City Console Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
2. A City Is Not a Computer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3. Public Knowledge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
4. Maintenance Codes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
Conclusion Platforms, Grafts & Arboreal Intelligence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	140
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Photo Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187