ABSTRACT

This article introduces the notion of algorithmic spatiality as a way to capture the unique spatial knowledge created by digital mobile media, and the way that this knowledge acts upon space, and is perceived by other actors involved in the production of space. Focusing on the navigation giant Waze, it asks how this new spatial actor legitimates the knowledge it creates about space and the effects incurred by this knowledge. In theoretical terms, it asks how Waze asserts its ‘right to the city’ through a discourse of a superior knowledge of space. These questions are discussed in light of a case study of the clash between Waze and local residents over the application’s common practice of diverting large volumes of traffic through side-roads, located in quiet neighbourhoods and villages in Israel. Over a period of two years, these clashes – by legal, political, and discursive means – reached public discussions in news outlets and social media, and these form the corpus of the research. The article shows how along long-established forms of knowledge which underlie different actors’ right to the city – experts’ knowledge, democratic knowledge, market knowledge, and local knowledge – emerges a new kind of knowledge, backed by big-data and algorithms and managed by a quasi-monopolistic platform, which claims a legitimate right to the production of space. Traditionally a right upheld by underprivileged groups and individuals, the right to the city is currently upheld by a socio-technical assemblage.

摘要

本文介绍了算法空间性的概念作为捕捉数字移动媒体创造的独特空间知识的一种方式，以及这种知识作用于空间的方式，并被参与空间生产的其他参与者所感知。关注导航巨头位智，它询问这个新的空间参与者如何使其创造的关于空间的知识以及这些知识产生的影响合法化。从理论上讲，它询问位智如何通过对空间的高级知识的论述来主张其“对城市的权利”。这些问题是根据 Waze 与当地居民之间就该应用程序通过位于以色列安静街区和村庄的侧路转移大量交通的常见做法发生冲突的案例研究进行讨论的。在两年的时间里，这些冲突——由法律、政治、和话语手段——在新闻媒体和社交媒体上进行公开讨论，这些构成了研究的语料库。这篇文章展示了作为不同行为者的城市权利基础的长期建立的知识形式——专家知识、民主知识、市场知识和地方知识——如何出现一种新的知识，以大数据和算法为后盾，由一个准垄断平台管理，该平台声称拥有生产空间的合法权利。传统上是弱势群体和个人维护的权利，而城市权目前由社会技术组合维护。这篇文章展示了作为不同行为者的城市权利基础的长期建立的知识形式——专家知识、民主知识、市场知识和地方知识——如何出现一种新的知识，以大数据和算法为后盾，由一个准垄断平台管理，该平台声称拥有生产空间的合法权利。传统上是弱势群体和个人维护的权利，而城市权目前由社会技术组合维护。这篇文章展示了作为不同行为者的城市权利基础的长期建立的知识形式——专家知识、民主知识、市场知识和地方知识——如何出现一种新的知识，以大数据和算法为后盾，由一个准垄断平台管理，该平台声称拥有生产空间的合法权利。传统上是弱势群体和个人维护的权利，而城市权目前由社会技术组合维护。