The Digital City and Mediated Urban Ecologies

This book examines the phenomenon of the “digital city” in the US by looking at three case studies: New York City, San Antonio, and Seattle. Kristin Scott considers how digital technologies are increasingly built into the logic and organization of urban spaces and argues that while each city articulates ideals such as those of open democracy, civic engagement, efficient governance, and enhanced security, competing capitalist interests attached to many of these digital technological programs make the “digital city” problematic.

“Scott’s excellent book pierces through the celebratory rhetoric about ‘smart’ and ‘digital’ cities to reveal the more unsettling and problematic dimensions of the urban-technology nexus. Focusing on three fascinating cases—New York, San Antonio, and Seattle—The Digital City and Mediated Urban Ecologies explores how public agencies and private industry employ digital networking technologies to pursue the goals of profit, surveillance/security, and social control. In doing so, the book offers an important contribution to urban and media studies.” (Timothy A. Gibson, Department of Communication, George Mason University)

“Kristin Scott’s The Digital City and Mediated Urban Ecologies is a smart, detailed, and provocative exploration of how city governments, corporations, and NGOs have constructed the idea of ‘digital’ or ‘smart’ cities. Scott’s analysis of New York, San Antonio, and Seattle considers the intersections of technology, political economy, and identity to criticallyconsider who is benefiting from urban digital technologies and who is being left behind. It’s a must-read for scholars of mobile technologies, surveillance, urban planning, American culture, and media studies.” (Robert W. Gehl, author of Reverse Engineering Social Media (2014))

Kristin Scott is Senior Lecturer in the Communications Department at Simmons College, USA.