This title takes the broadest possible scope to interrogate the emergence of "platform urbanism", examining how it transforms urban infrastructure, governance, knowledge production, and everyday life, and brings together leading scholars and early-career researchers from across five continents and multiple disciplines.

The volume advances theoretical debates at the leading edge of the intersection between urbanism, governance, and the digital economy, by drawing on a range of empirically detailed cases from which to theorize the multiplicity of forms that platform urbanism takes. It draws international comparisons between urban platforms across sites, with attention to the leading edges of theory and practice and explores the potential for a renewal of civic life, engagement, and participatory governance through "platform cooperativism" and related movements. A breadth of tangible and diverse examples of platform urbanism provides critical insights to scholars examining the interface of digital technologies and urban infrastructure, urban governance, urban knowledge production, and everyday urban life.

The book will be invaluable on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as for academics and researchers in these fields, including anthropology, geography, innovation studies, politics, public policy, science and technology studies, sociology, sustainable development, urban planning, and urban studies. It will also appeal to an engaged, academia-adjacent readership, including city and regional planners, policymakers, and third-sector researchers in the realms of citizen engagement, industrial strategy, regeneration, sustainable development, and transport.

About the Author

Mike Hodson is senior research fellow in the Sustainable Consumption Institute, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester and a member of the Manchester Urban Institute, UK.

Julia Kasmire researches and teaches on how to use new forms of data for social scientists with the UK Data Service and the Cathie Marsh Institute at the University of Manchester, UK.

Andrew McMeekin is Professor of Innovation at the Alliance Manchester Business School and the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), UK.

John G. Stehlin is Assistant Professor in the department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA.

Kevin Ward is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Director of the Manchester Urban Institute at the University of Manchester, UK.

Reviews

"As digital platforms exert ever more influence on how cities run, function, and what it means to live in them, they increasingly reconfigure urban environments in their own image. Urban Platforms and the Future City is an essential field guide for navigating this brave new world, tracing the contours of platform-mediated cities in the making - and identifying opportunities for shaping what platformized urban futures will look like."

Agnieszka Leszczynski, Western University, Canada

"Digital platforms are reconfiguring everyday geographies and the production of urban space. This book charts the nature and operations of urban platform and their relationship with urban infrastructure, governance, knowledge production, and experiences. Rich in conceptual insight and empirical examples it is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding contemporary urbanism."

Rob Kitchin, Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, Ireland

Book Information
ISBN 9780367334192
Author Mike Hodson
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g