The politics of algorithmic governance in the black box city

Date

2020

Authors

Smith, Gavin

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Sage Journals

Abstract

Everyday surveillance work is increasingly performed by non-human algorithms. These entities can be conceptualised as machinic fla^neurs that engage in distanciated fla^nerie: subjecting urban flows to a dispassionate, calculative and expansive gaze. This paper provides some theoretical reflections on the nascent forms of algorithmic practice materialising in two Australian cities, and some of their implications for urban relations and social justice. It looks at the idealisation – and operational black boxing – of automated watching programs, before considering their impacts on notions such as ‘the right to the city’ and ‘the right to the face’. It will argue that the turn to facial recognition software for the purposes of automating urban governance reconstitutes the meanings and phenomenology of the face. In particular, the fleshly and communicative physicality of the face is reduced to a measurable object that can be identified by a virtualised referent and then consequently tracked. Moreover, the asymmetrical and faceless nature of these machinic programs of recognition unsettles conventional notions of civil inattention and bodily sovereignty, and the prioritisation given to pattern recognition renders them amenable to ideas/ideals from phrenology and physiognomy. In this way, algorithmic governance may generate not only forms of facial vulnerability and estrangement, but also facial artifice, where individuals come to develop tacit and artful ways of de-facing and re-facing in order to subvert the processes of recognition which leverage these modes of biopower. Thus, the datafication of urban governance gives rise to a dynamic biopolitics of the face.

Description

Keywords

The black box city, surveillance, algorithmic governance, biometrics, facial recognition, biopolitics

Citation

Source

Big Data & Society

Type

Journal article

Book Title

Entity type

Access Statement

Open Access

License Rights

Creative Commons NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

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