Data Politics in the Built Environment

Data Politics in the Built Environment

This special issue advances understandings of the practices, politics and power implications of data-driven buildings and cities

Buildings and cities are increasingly being reconfigured and reimagined by flows of data e.g. in smart homes and cities, digitally networked infrastructure services, shared mobility programmes and autonomous vehicles, surveillance and security systems, and urban control centres. The benefits of a datafied built environment are uneven and result in detrimental impacts to some individuals and groups at the expense of others.

Guest editors: Andrew Karvonen and Tom Hargreaves

Datafication processes are far from neutral. In many cases, the datafication of the built environment is invisible to users which has negative democratic implications. The asymmetrical access to data produces conditions that are beneficial to some but not all. Decisions about what data gets collected and what is ignored are unavoidably political processes that privilege some while neglecting others. This special issue raise key questions about how data-driven buildings and cities can be designed to be inclusive and democratic.

A key theme emerging from the special issue involves processes of societal exclusion that are commonplace in datafication. Mello Rose and Chang argue that datafication processes tend to ignore important sources of ‘subjective socio-cultural data’ while Sharma et al. highlight the under-representation of particular social groups and the perpetuation of existing structures of inequality. White and Larsson demonstrate how digital platforms produce social relations that are de-individualized and de-personalised to realise globalised and consumerist modes of life, while Sareen et al. show how digitalisation favours privatised and individualised structures rather than collective forms of management and ownership.

A second theme in the special issue is the centrality of local geographies and histories to datafication processes. All of the contributions emphasise the importance of qualitative methods and datasets to characterise local histories and geographies while providing a strong corrective to the universalising quantitative abstractions of most datafication processes.

This special issue highlights the importance of including civil society in the development of new visions and alternatives that can dismantle existing unjust power structures. The contingent character of datafication processes is not inevitable but is the result of particular actions that could have turned out differently. Commoning can be a means to normalise and institutionalise more progressive and inclusive forms of collective consumption. Data-driven processes that are founded in social justice could realise fundamental systemic changes. A more ‘radical ethics’ of data politics could serve to renegotiate and re-evaluate interconnected urban crises.

Table of contents

Data politics in the built environment (Editorial)
A. Karvonen & T. Hargreaves  

Social justice implications of smart urban technologies: an intersectional approach
N. Sharma, T. Hargreaves & H. Pallett

Urban data: harnessing subjective sociocultural data from local newspapers
F. Mello Rose & J. Chang

Social implications of energy infrastructure digitalisation and decarbonisation
S. Sareen, A. Smith, S. Gantioler, J. Balest, M.C. Brisbois, S. Tomasi, B. Sovacool, G. A. Torres Contreras, N. Dellavalle & H. Haarstad

Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J. White & S. Larsson

Feedback on the special issue

Phronesis and epistemic justice in data-driven built environments
Miguel Valdez

The Data Politics of Tech Corporations
Dillon Mahmoudi & Alan Wiig

Understanding Demolition
Previous article
Understanding Demolition
Urban Expansion
Next article
Urban Expansion

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Evaluating mitigation strategies for building stocks against absolute climate targets
L Hvid Horup, P K Ohms, M Hauschild, S R B Gummidi, A Q Secher, C Thuesen, M Ryberg

Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework
T Okamoto & A Doyon

Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
T Comelli, M Pelling, M Hope, J Ensor, M E Filippi, E Y Menteşe & J McCloskey

Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato

Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon

Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert

Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell

Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar

How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang

Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow

Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde

Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson

Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka

Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves

European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf

Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk

Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte

Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle

Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson

Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett

Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech

Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley

See all

Latest Commentaries

Time to Question Demolition!

André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?

Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?

Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.

Join Our Community