Cold open: The Ballot or the Bullet

So obviously this was recorded before the election, but our topic for this week’s episode is the exact analysis you need to understand how something like Prop 22 could pass in a landslide. We dive into the rise of smart/platform urbanism by guiding you through the urbanization of technology capital over three phases, each one grabbing more power: oversight of city governance, operation of city services, and ownership of city space.

This episode builds on two academic articles Jathan recently wrote on platform urbanism. Here’s paywalled links, which you can unlock by plugging the links into https://scihub.wikicn.top/
• Cyberspace and Cityscapes: On the Emergence of Platform Urbanism https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02723638.2020.1721055?journalCode=rurb20
• Who Owns the Future City? Phases of Technological Urbanism and Shifts in Sovereignty https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098020913427

Subscribe to TMK on Patreon for access to the second part of this episode—and for premium episodes every week! https://www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl).