How Urban Tech Increases Corporate Control

Paris Marx is joined by David Banks to discuss how tech solutions to increase corporate control in cities will be sold to us as fun and convenient, and what that will actually means for access and equity in urban life.

David Banks is a visiting assistant professor at the University at Albany. He’s the editor-at-large at Real Life, and has written for The Baffler, e-flux architecture, and Current Affairs. Follow David on Twitter as @DA_Banks.

• Read David’s articles for Real Life on the subscriber city and e-flux architecture on software as infrastructure.
• Paris wrote about the end of the Paramount Decrees, including what it could mean for the future of cinemas.
• How people are fighting back against landlords attempts to use tech against tenants (“proptech”).
• Slavoj Žižek gives a father/son example of totalitarianism (from ~0:00-3:00).
• David Harvey’s “Right to the City” essay mentions how homeownership makes people more conservative.
• Red Vienna remains a great example of public housing.
• Kevin Rogan wrote about how smart-city technologies are designed to hide human labor.
• Books in this show: “Radicalized” by Cory Doctorow, “Urban Warfare” by Raquel Rolnik, “Capital City” by Samuel Stein, and “Loft Living” by Sharon Zukin

• Data Vampires: Going Hyperscale (Episode 1)
• No Tech for Apartheid w/ Mohammad Khatami & Gabi Schubiner
• Silicon Valley Deserves Your Anger w/ Ed Zitron
• A Setback for Gig Workers’ Rights in Europe w/ Ben Wray