The Spectrum of Control: A Social Theory of the Smart City

Authors

Jathan Sadowski
Frank A. Pasquale, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2015

Comments

This article will also be published in a German translation for the Analysen series

Abstract

There is a certain allure to the idea that cities allow a person to both feel at home and like a stranger in the same place. That one can know the streets and shops, avenues and alleys, while also going days without being recognized. But as elites fill cities with “smart” technologies—turning them into platforms for the “Internet of Things” (IoT): sensors and computation embedded within physical objects that then connect, communicate, and/or transmit information with or between each other through the Internet—there is little escape from a seamless web of surveillance and power. This paper will outline a social theory of the “smart city” by developing our Deleuzian concept of the “spectrum of control.” We present two illustrative examples: biometric surveillance as a form of monitoring, and automated policing as a particularly brutal and exacting form of manipulation. We conclude by offering normative guidelines for governance of the pervasive surveillance and control mechanisms that constitute an emerging critical infrastructure of the “smart city.”

Publication Citation

First Monday, vol. 20, no. 7 (July 2015).

Disciplines

Law and Philosophy | Law and Society | Science and Technology Law | Science and Technology Studies

Digital Commons Citation

First Monday, vol. 20, no. 7 (July 2015).