FROM MATH TO GEOGRAPHY – WHAT IS TOPOLOGY?

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What types of practices and relations do we find when we open the ‘black-box’ of urban data in Canada and what role do these practices and relations play in data-driven urbanism?

Research Question

The purpose of this project is to explore the contents of the ‘black-box’ of data-driven urbanism: the complex assemblages of people, spaces, discourses and technologies that must be secured to produce urban data in the first place.

Cities around the world are being rocked by an explosion in urban data. Real-time information linked to urban energy use, travel flow, personal location and movement, consumption, and criminal activity is bursting forth in the Global North and South. Local governments, along with corporate and academic partners, are enthusiastically working to leverage this ‘big data’ in order to improve the sustainability of cities and enhance the quality of urban life. This so-called data- driven urbanism uses high-powered computers and data analytics to generate objective knowledge about urban conditions, patterns and impacts that is used to inform urban policy and planning practices.

Project Background